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Rebecca  of  Sunnybrook  Farm. 

New  Chronicles  of  Rebecca.    Illustrated  by  F.  C.  YOHN. 

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Penelope's  Progress.    Experiences  in  Scotland. 

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FORD. 

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THE 

OLD    PEABODY 
PEW 


OLD    P'riW    DARNING    THE    FADED    CUSHION 


Cfje 


A   CHRISTMAS    ROMANCE 
OF  A  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

BY  KATE  DOUGLAS  WIGGIN 

WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS   BY 
ALICE   BARBER  STEPHENS 


BOSTON  ' 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 
MDCCCCVII 


PS  3  302. 


COPYRIGHT    1905   BY   THE   CURTIS   PUBLISHING   COMPANY 

COPYRIGHT   1907   BY    KATE   DOUGLAS   RIGGS   AND 

HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN    AND   COMPANY 

ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 
Published  October  7907 


DEDICATION 

To  a  certain  handful  of  dear  New  Eng 
land  women  of  names  unknown  to  the 
world,  dwelling  in  a  certain  quiet  village, 
alike  unknown :  — 

We  have  worked  together  to  make  our 
little  corner  of  the  great  universe  a  plea- 
santer  place  in  which  to  live,  and  so  we 
know,  not  only  one  another's  names,  but 
something  of  one  another's  joys  and  sor 
rows,  cares  and  burdens,  economies,  hopes, 
and  anxieties. 

We  all  remember  the  dusty  uphill  road 
that  leads  to  the  green  church  common. 
We  remember  the  white  spire  pointing 
upward  against  a  background  of  blue 
sky  and  feathery  elms.  W 'e  remember  the 
sound  of  the  bell  that  falls  on  the  Sabbath 


912979 


DEDICATION 


morning  stillness,  calling  us  across  the 
daisy -sprinkled  meadows  of  June,  the 
golden  hay  fields  of  July,  or  the  dazzling 
whiteness  and  deep  snowdrifts  of  Decem 
ber  days.  The  little  cabinet-organ  that 
plays  the  Doxology,  the  hymn-books  from 
which  we  sing  "Praise  God  from  whom 
all  blessings  flow/'  the  sweet  freshness  of 
the  old  meeting-house,  within  and  without, 
—  how  we  have  toiled  to  secure  and  pre 
serve  these  humble  mercies  for  ourselves 
and  our  children  I 

There  really  is  a  Dorcas  Society,  as 
you  and  I  well  know,  and  one  not  unlike 
that  in  these  pages  ;  and  you  and  I  have 
lived  through  many  discouraging,  laugh 
able,  and  beautiful  experiences  while  we 
emulated  the  Bible  Dorcas,  that  woman 
"full  of  good  works  and  alms  deeds." 

There  never  was  a  Peabody  Pew  in  the 


DEDICATION 


Tory  Hill  Meeting-House,  and  Nancy's 
love  story  and  Justin's  never  happened 
within  its  century-old  walls  ;  but  I  have 
imagined  only  one  of  the  many  romances 
that  have  had  their  birth  under  the  shadow 
of  that  steeple,  did  we  but  realize  it. 

As  you  have  sat  there  on  open-win 
dowed  Sundays,  looking  across  purple 
clover-fields  to  blue  distant  mountains, 
watching  the  palm-leaf  fans  swaying  to 
and  fro  in  the  warm  stillness  before  ser 
mon  time,  did  not  the  place  seem  full  of 
memories,  for  has  not  the  life  of  two  vil 
lages  ebbed  and  flowed  beneath  that  an 
cient  roof?  You  heard  the  hum  of  dron 
ing  bees  and  followed  the  airy  wings  of 
butterflies  fluttering  over  the  gravestones 
in  the  old  churchyard,  and  underneath  al 
most  every  moss-grown  tablet  some  humble 
romance  lies  buried  and  all  but  forgotten. 


DEDICATION 


//  it  had  not  been  for  you,  I  should  never 
have  written  this  story,  so  I  give  it  back 
to  you  tied  with  a  sprig  from  Ophelia's 
nosegay;  a  sprig  of  "rosemary,  that's  for 
remembrance." 

K.  D.  W. 

August,  1907. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

IN   THE    OLD    PEW    DARNING    THE 

FADED    CUSHION     (Page  53)       Frontispiece 

THEY  WERE  SEWING  IN  THE 
CHURCH  —  THE  LAST  STITCHES 
WERE  BEING  TAKEN  19 

"  THEY  WERE  A  HANDSOME  FAM 
ILY —  YOU  USED  TO  SIT  WITH 
THEM  SOMETIMES,  NANCY"  36 

"  YOU  9LL  SEE  ME  BACK  WHEN  MY 

LUCK   TURNS,   NANCY  "  59 

THE     WINTER      MOON      SHONE     IN 

UPON   THEM  120 

NANCY  WENTWORTH  WALKED  UP 
THE  AISLE  ON  JUSTIN  PEA- 
BODY'S  ARM  135 


THE   OLD 
PEABODY   PEW 


DGEWOOD,  like  all  the 
other  villages  along  the 
banks  of  the  Saco,  is 
full  of  sunny  slopes  and 
leafy  hollows.  There 
are  little,  rounded,  green-clad  hillocks 
that  might,  like  their  scriptural  sis 
ters,  "  skip  with  joy;"  and  there  are 
grand,  rocky  hills  tufted  with  gaunt 
pine  trees  —  these  leading  the  eye 
to  the  splendid  heights  of  a  neigh 
bor  State,  where  snow-crowned  peaks 
tower  in  the  blue  distance,  sweep- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


ing  the  horizon  in  a  long  line  of 
majesty. 

Tory  Hill  holds  its  own  among  the 
others  for  peaceful  beauty  and  fair 
prospect,  and  on  its  broad,  level  sum 
mit  sits  the  white-painted  Orthodox 
Meeting-House.  This  faces  a  grassy 
common  where  six  roads  meet,  as 
if  the  early  settlers  had  determined 
that  no  one  should  lack  salvation  be 
cause  of  a  difficulty  in  reaching  its 
visible  source. 

The  old  church  has  had  a  dignified 
and  fruitful  past,  dating  from  that 
day  in  1761  when  young  Paul  Coffin 
received  his  call  to  preach  at  a  sti 
pend  of  fifty  pounds  sterling  a  year ; 
answering  "  that  never  having  heard 


I 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


of  any  Uneasiness  among  the  people 
about  his  Doctrine  or  manner  of  life, 
he  declared  himself  pleased  to  Settle 
as  Soon  as  might  be  Judged  Conven 
ient." 

But  that  was  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  and  much  has  happened 
since  those  simple,  strenuous  old 
days.  The  chastening  hand  of  time 
has  been  laid  somewhat  heavily  on 
the  town  as  well  as  on  the  church. 
Some  of  her  sons  have  marched  to  the 
wars  and  died  on  the  field  of  honor ; 
some,  seeking  better  fortunes,  have 
gone  westward  ;  others,  wearying  of 
village  life,  the  rocky  soil,  and  rigors 
of  farm-work,  have  become  entangled 
in  the  noise  and  competition,  the 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


rush  and  strife,  of  cities.  When  the 
sexton  rings  the  bell  nowadays,  on 
a  Sunday  morning,  it  seems  to  have 
lost  some  of  its  old-time  militant 
strength,  something  of  its  hope  and 
courage ;  but  it  still  rings,  and  al 
though  the  Davids  and  Solomons, 
the  Matthews,  Marks,  and  Pauls  of 
former  congregations  have  left  few 
descendants  to  perpetuate  their  la 
bors,  it  will  go  on  ringing  as  long  as 
there  is  a  Tabitha,  a  Dorcas,  a  Lois, 
or  a  Eunice  left  in  the  community. 

This  sentiment  had  been  main 
tained  for  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
but  it  was  now  especially  strong, 
as  the  old  Tory  Hill  Meeting-House 
had  been  undergoing  for  several  years 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


more  or  less  extensive  repairs.  In 
point  of  fact,  the  still  stronger  word, 
"  improvements,"  might  be  used  with 
impunity ;  though  whenever  the  Dor 
cas  Society,  being  female,  and  there 
fore  possessed  of  notions  regarding 
comfort  and  beauty,  suggested  any 
serious  changes,  the  finance  commit 
tees,  which  were  inevitably  male  in 
their  composition,  generally  disap 
proved  of  making  any  impious  alter 
ations  in  a  tabernacle,  chapel,  temple, 
or  any  other  building  used  for  purposes 
of  worship.  The  majority  in  these  au 
gust  bodies  asserted  that  their  ances 
tors  had  prayed  and  sung  there  for  a 
century  and  a  quarter,  and  what  was 
good  enough  for  their  ancestors  was 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


entirely  suitable  for  them.  Besides, 
the  community  was  becoming  less  and 
less  prosperous,  and  church-going  was 
growing  more  and  more  lamentably 
uncommon,  so  that  even  from  a  busi 
ness  standpoint,  any  sums  expended 
upon  decoration  by  a  poor  and  strug 
gling  parish  would  be  worse  than 
wasted. 

In  the  particular  year  under  dis 
cussion  in  this  story,  the  valiant  and 
progressive  Mrs.  Jeremiah  Burbank 
was  the  president  of  the  Dorcas  Soci 
ety,  and  she  remarked  privately  and 
publicly  that  if  her  ancestors  liked 
a  smoky  church,  they  had  a  perfect 
right  to  the  enjoyment  of  it,  but  that 
she  did  n't  intend  to  sit  through 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


i 


meeting  on  winter  Sundays,  with  her 
white  ostrich  feather  turning  gray 
and  her  eyes  smarting  and  watering, 
for  the  rest  of  her  natural  life. 

Whereupon,  this  being  in  a  business 
session,  she  then  and  there  proposed 
to  her  already  hypnotized  constitu 
ents  ways  of  earning  enough  money 
to  build  a  new  chimney  on  the  other 
side  of  the  church. 

An  awe-stricken  community  wit 
nessed  this  beneficent  act  of  vandal 
ism,  and,  finding  that  no  thunder 
bolts  of  retribution  descended  from 
the  skies,  greatly  relished  the  change. 
If  one  or  two  aged  persons  complained 
that  they  could  not  sleep  as  sweetly 
during  sermon-time  in  the  now  clear 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


atmosphere  of  the  church,  and  that 
the  parson's  eye  was  keener  than 
before,  why,  that  was  a  mere  detail, 
and  could  not  be  avoided  ;  what  was 
the  loss  of  a  little  sleep  compared 
with  the  discoloration  of  Mrs.  Jere 
Burbank's  white  ostrich  feather  and 
the  smarting  of  Mrs.  Jere  Burbank's 
eyes  ? 

A  new  furnace  followed  the  new 
chimney,  in  due  course,  and  as  a 
sense  of  comfort  grew,  there  was  op 
portunity  to  notice  the  lack  of  beauty. 
Twice  in  sixty  years  had  some  well- 
to-do  summer  parishioner  painted  the 
interior  of  the  church  at  his  own  ex 
pense  ;  but  although  the  roof  had  been 
many  times  reshingled,  it  had  always 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


persisted  in  leaking,  so  that  the  ceil 
ing  and  walls  were  disfigured  by  un 
sightly  spots  and  stains  and  streaks. 
The  question  of  shingling  was  tacitly 
felt  to  be  outside  the  feminine  do 
main,  but  as  there  were  five  wromen  to 
one  man  in  the  church  membership, 
the  feminine  domain  was  frequently 
obliged  to  extend  its  limits  into  the 
hitherto  unknown.  Matters  of  tarring 
and  waterproofing  were  discussed  in 
and  out  of  season,  and  the  very  school 
children  imbibed  knowledge  concern 
ing  lapping,  overlapping,  and  cross- 
lapping,  and  first  and  second  quality 
of  cedar  shingles.  Miss  Lobelia  Brew- 
ster,  who  had  a  rooted  distrust  of 
anything  done  by  mere  man,  created 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


strife  by  remarking  that  she  could 
have  stopped  the  leak  in  the  belfry 
tower  with  her  red  flannel  petticoat 
better  than  the  Milltown  man  with 
his  new-fangled  rubber  sheeting,  and 
that  the  last  shingling  could  have 
been  more  thoroughly  done  by  a 
"  female  infant  babe  ;  "  whereupon 
the  person  criticised  retorted  that 
he  wished  Miss  Lobelia  Brewster  had 
a  few  infant  babes  to  "put  on  the  job 
—  he'd  like  to  see  'em  try."  Mean 
time  several  male  members  of  the 
congregation,  who  at  one  time  or  an 
other  had  sat  on  the  roof  during  the 
hottest  of  the  dog-days  to  see  that 
shingling  operations  were  conscien 
tiously  and  skillfully  performed,  were 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


very  pessimistic  as  to  any  satisfactory 
result  ever  being  achieved. 

"  The  angle  of  the  roof — what  they 
call  the  '  pitch*  —  they  say  that  that 's 
always  been  wrong,"  announced  the 
secretary  of  the  Dorcas  in  a  business 
session. 

"  Is  it  that  kind  of  pitch  that  the 
Bible  says  you  can't  touch  without 
being  defiled?  If  not,  I  vote  that 
we  unshingle  the  roof  and  alter  the 
pitch!  "  This  proposal  came  from  a  sis 
ter  named  Maria  Sharp,  who  had  val 
iantly  offered  the  year  before  to  move 
the  smoky  chimney  with  her  own 
hands,  if  the  "  men-folks  "  would  n't. 

But  though  the  incendiary  sug 
gestion  of  altering  the  pitch  was  re- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


ceived  with  applause  at  the  moment, 
subsequent  study  of  the  situation 
proved  that  such  a  proceeding  was 
entirely  beyond  the  modest  means  of 
the  society.  Then  there  arose  an  in 
genious  and  militant  carpenter  in  a 
neighboring  village,  who  asserted  that 
he  would  shingle  the  meeting-house 
roof  for  such  and  such  a  sum,  and 
agree  to  drink  every  drop  of  water 
that  would  leak  in  afterward.  This 
was  felt  by  all  parties  to  be  a  pro 
mise  attended  by  extraordinary  risks, 
but  it  was  accepted  nevertheless,  Miss 
Lobelia  Brewster  remarking  that  the 
rash  carpenter,  being  already  mar 
ried,  could  not  marry  a  Dorcas  any 
way,  and  even  if  he  died,  he  was  not  a 


THE  OLD  PEABODY  PEW 


resident  of  Edgewood,  and  therefore 
could  be  more  easily  spared,  and  that 
it  would  be  rather  exciting,  just  for 
a  change,  to  see  a  man  drink  him 
self  to  death  with  rain-water.  The 
expected  tragedy  never  occurred, 
however,  and  the  inspired  shingler 
fulfilled  his  promise  to  the  letter,  so 
that  before  many  months  the  Dorcas 
Society  proceeded,  with  incredible 
exertion,  to  earn  more  money,  and 
the  interior  of  the  church  was  neatly 
painted  and  made  as  fresh  as  a  rose. 
With  no  smoke,  no  rain,  no  snow  nor 
melting  ice  to  defile  it,  the  good  old 
landmark  that  had  been  pointing  its 
finger  Heavenward  for  over  a  century 
would  now  be  clean  and  fragrant  for 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


years  to  come,  and  the  weary  sisters 
leaned  back  in  their  respective  rock 
ing-chairs  and  drew  deep  breaths  of 
satisfaction. 

These  breaths  continued  to  be 
drawn  throughout  an  unusually  ar 
duous  haying  season ;  until,  in  fact, 
a  visitor  from  a  neighboring  city 
was  heard  to  remark  that  the  Tory 
Hill  Meeting-House  would  be  one 
of  the  best  preserved  and  pleasant- 
est  churches  in  the  whole  State  of 
Maine,  if  only  it  were  suitably  car 
peted. 

This  thought  had  secretly  occurred 
to  many  a  Dorcas  in  her  hours  of 
pie-making,  preserving,  or  cradle- 
rocking,  but  had  been  promptly  ex- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


tinguished  as  flagrantly  extravagant 
and  altogether  impossible.  Now  that 
it  had  been  openly  mentioned,  the 
contagion  of  the  idea  spread,  and 
in  a  month  every  sort  of  honest 
machinery  for  the  increase  of  funds 
had  been  set  in  motion :  harvest 
suppers,  pie  sociables,  old  folks'  con 
certs,  apron  sales,  and,  as  a  last  re 
sort,  a  subscription  paper,  for  the 
church  floor  measured  hundreds  of 
square  yards,  and  the  carpet  com 
mittee  announced  that  a  good  in 
grain  could  not  be  purchased,  even 
with  the  church  discount,  for  less 
than  ninety-seven  cents  a  yard. 

The  Dorcases  took  out  their  pen 
cils,  and  when  they  multiplied  the 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


surface  of  the  floor  by  the  price 
of  the  carpet  per  yard,  each  Dorcas 
attaining  a  result  entirely  different 
from  all  the  others,  there  was  a 
shriek  of  dismay,  especially  from  the 
secretary,  who  had  included  in  her 
mathematical  operation  certain  fig 
ures  in  her  possession  representing 
the  cubical  contents  of  the  church 
and  the  offending  pitch  of  the  roof, 
thereby  obtaining  a  product  that 
would  have  dismayed  a  Croesus. 
Time  sped  and  efforts  increased,  but 
the  Dorcases  were  at  length  obliged 
to  clip  the  wings  of  their  desire 
and  content  themselves  with  carpet 
ing  the  pulpit  and  pulpit  steps,  the 
choir,  and  the  two  aisles,  leaving  the 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


floor  in  the  pews  until  some  future 
year. 

How  the  women  cut  and  contrived 
and  matched  that  hardly-bought  red 
ingrain  carpet,  in  the  short  Decem 
ber  afternoons  that  ensued  after  its 
purchase;  so  that,  having  failed  to 
be  ready  for  Thanksgiving,  it  could 
be  finished  for  the  Christmas  festivi 
ties  ! 

They  were  sewing  in  the  church, 
and  as  the  last  stitches  were  being 
taken,  Maria  Sharp  suddenly  ejacu 
lated  in  her  impulsive  fashion  :  — 

"  Would  n't  it  have  been  just  per 
fect  if  we  could  have  had  the  pews 
repainted  before  we  laid  the  new 
carpet ! " 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"  It  would,  indeed,"  the  president 
answered;  "but  it  will  take  us  all 
winter  to  pay  for  the  present  im 
provements,  without  any  thought  of 
fresh  paint.  If  only  we  had  a  few 
more  men-folks  to  help  along !  " 

"  Or  else  none  at  all !  "  was  Lobelia 
Brewster's  suggestion.  "  It 's  havin' 
so  few  that  keeps  us  all  stirred  up. 
If  there  wa'n't  any  anywheres,  we  'd 
have  women  deacons  and  carpenters 
and  painters,  and  get  along  first  rate ; 
for  somehow  the  supply  o'  women 
always  holds  out,  same  as  it  does 
with  caterpillars  an*  flies  an'  grass 
hoppers!" 

Everybody  laughed,  although  Ma 
ria  Sharp  asserted  that  she  for  one 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


was  not  willing  to  be  called  a  cater 
pillar  simply  because  there  were  too 
many  women  in  the  universe. 

"  I  never  noticed  before  how 
shabby  and  scarred  and  dirty  the 
pews  are,"  said  the  minister's  wife, 
as  she  looked  at  them  reflectively. 

"  I  've  been  thinking  all  the  after 
noon  of  the  story  about  the  poor  old 
woman  and  the  lily,"  and  Nancy 
Wentworth's  clear  voice  broke  into 
the  discussion.  "  Do  you  remember 
some  one  gave  her  a  stalk  of  Easter 
lilies  and  she  set  them  in  a  glass 
pitcher  on  the  kitchen  table  ?  After 
looking  at  them  for  a  few  minutes, 
she  got  up  from  her  chair  and  washed 
the  pitcher  until  the  glass  shone. 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Sitting  down  again,  she  glanced  at 
the  little  window.  It  would  never 
do;  she  had  forgotten  how  dusty 
and  blurred  it  was,  and  she  took  her 
cloth  and  burnished  the  panes.  Then 
she  scoured  the  table,  then  the  floor, 
then  blackened  the  stove  before  she 
sat  down  to  her  knitting.  And  of 
course  the  lily  had  done  it  all,  just 
by  showing,  in  its  whiteness,  how 
grimy  everything  else  was/' 

The  minister's  wife,  who  had  been 
in  Edgewood  only  a  few  months, 
looked  admiringly  at  Nancy's  bright 
face,  wondering  that  five-and-thirty 
years  of  life,  including  ten  of  school- 
teaching,  had  done  so  little  to  mar  its 
serenity.  "  The  lily  story  is  as  true 


I 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


as  the  gospel !  "  she  exclaimed,  "  and 
I  can  see  how  one  thing  has  led  you 
to  another  in  making  the  church 
comfortable.  But  my  husband  says 
that  two  coats  of  paint  on  the  pews 
would  cost  a  considerable  sum." 

"  How  about  cleaning  them  ?  I 
don't  believe  they  've  had  a  good 
hard  washing  since  the  flood."  The 
suggestion  came  from  Deacon  Miller's 
wife  to  the  president. 

"  They  can't  even  be  scrubbed  for 
less  than  fifteen  or  twenty  dollars, 
for  I  thought  of  that  and  asked 
Mrs.  Simpson  yesterday,  and  she  said 
twenty  cents  a  pew  was  the  cheapest 
she  could  do  it  for." 

"  We'vedone  everything  else,"  said 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Nancy  Wentworth,  with  a  twitch  of 
her  thread ;  "  why  don't  we  scrub  the 
pews  ?  There  's  nothing  in  the  or 
thodox  creed  to  forbid,  is  there  ?  " 

"  Speakin'  o'  creeds,"  and  here  old 
Mrs.  Sargent  paused  in  her  work, 
"  Elder  Ransom  from  Acreyille 
stopped  with  us  last  night,  an*  he 
tells  me  they  recite  the  Euthanasian 
Creed  every  few  Sundays  in  the  Epis 
copal  Church.  I  did  n't  want  him 
to  know  how  ignorant  I  was,  but  I 
looked  up  the  word  in  the  dictionary. 
It  means  easy  death,  and  I  can't  see 
any  sense  in  that,  though  it 's  a  ter 
rible  long  creed,  the  Elder  says,  an'  if 
it 's  any  longer  'n  ourn,  I  should  think 
anybody  might  easy  die  learnin'  it !  " 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"  I  think  the  word  is  Athanasian," 
ventured  the  minister's  wife. 

"  Elder  Ransom  's  always  plumb 
full  o'  doctrine,"  asserted  Miss  Brew- 
ster,  pursuing  the  subject.  "  For  my 
part,  I  'm  glad  he  preferred  Acreville 
to  our  place.  He  was  so  busy  bein*  a 
minister,  he  never  got  round  to  bein' 
a  human  creeter.  When  he  used  to 
come  to  sociables  and  picnics,  always 
lookin'  kind  o'  like  the  potato  blight, 
I  used  to  think  how  complete  he  'd 
be  if  he  had  a  foldin'  pulpit  under 
his  coat-tails;  they  make  foldin'  beds 
nowadays,  an'  I  s'pose  they  could  make 
foldin'  pulpits,  if  there  was  a  call." 

"  Land  sakes,  I  hope  there  won't 
be  !  "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Sargent.  "  An' 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


the  Elder  never  said  much  of  any 
thing  either,  though  he  was  always 
preachin* !  Now  your  husband,  Mis' 
Baxter,  always  has  plenty  to  say 
after  you  think  he 's  all  through. 
There  's  water  in  his  well  when  the 
others  is  all  dry  !  " 

"  But  how  about  the  pews  ?  "  in 
terrupted  Mrs.  Burbank.  "  I  think 
Nancy's  idea  is  splendid,  and  I  want 
to  see  it  carried  out.  We  might  make 
it  a  picnic,  bring  our  luncheons,  and 
work  all  together ;  let  every  woman 
in  the  congregation  come  and  scrub 
her  own  pew." 

"  Some  are  too  old,  others  live  at 
too  great  a  distance,"  and  the  min 
ister's  wife  sighed  a  little ;  "  indeed, 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


most  of  those  who  once  owned  the 
pews  or  sat  in  them  seem  to  be  dead, 
or  gone  away  to  live  in  busier  places." 

"  I  've  no  patience  with  'em,  gal- 
livantin'  over  the  earth/'  and  here 
Lobelia  rose  and  shook  the  carpet 
threads  from  her  lap.  "  I  shouldn't 
want  to  live  in  a  livelier  place  than 
Edgewood,  seem 's  though !  We  wash 
and  hang  out  Mondays,  iron  Tues 
days,  cook  Wednesdays,  clean  house 
and  mend  Thursdays  and  Fridays, 
bake  Saturdays,  and  go  to  meetin' 
Sundays.  I  don't  hardly  see  how 
they  can  do  any  more  'n  that  in 
Chicago ! " 

"  Never  mind  if  we  have  lost  mem 
bers  ! "  said  the  indomitable  Mrs.  Bur- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


bank.  "  The  members  we  still  have 
left  must  work  all  the  harder.  We  '11 
each  clean  our  own  pew,  then  take  a 
few  of  our  neighbors',  and  then  hire 
Mrs.  Simpson  to  do  the  wainscoting 
and  floor.  Can  we  scrub  Friday  and 
lay  the  carpet  Saturday?  My  hus 
band  and  Deacon  Miller  can  help  us 
at  the  end  of  the  week.  All  in  favor 
manifest  it  by  the  usual  sign.  Con 
trary-minded  ?  It  is  a  vote." 

There  never  were  any  contrary 
minded  when  Mrs.  Jere  Burbank  was 
in  the  chair.  Public  sentiment  in 
Edgewood  was  swayed  by  the  Dorcas 
Society,  but  Mrs.  Burbank  swayed 
the  Dorcases  themselves  as  the  wind 
sways  the  wheat. 


II 

HE  old  meeting-house 
wore  an  animated  as 
pect  when  the  event 
ful  Friday  came,  a 
cold,  brilliant,  spark 
ling  December  day,  with  good  sleigh 
ing,  and  with  energy  in  every  breath 
that  swept  over  the  dazzling  snow- 
fields.  The  sexton  had  built  a  fire  in 
the  furnace  on  the  way  to  his  morn 
ing  work  —  a  fire  so  economically 
contrived  that  it  would  last  exactly 
the  four  or  five  necessary  hours,  and 
not  a  second  more.  At  eleven  o'clock 
all  the  pillars  of  the  society  had 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


assembled,  having  finished  their  own 
household  work  and  laid  out  on  their 
respective  kitchen  tables  comfortable 
luncheons  for  the  men  of  the  family,  if 
they  were  fortunate  enough  to  num 
ber  any  among  their  luxuries.  Water 
was  heated  upon  oil-stoves  set  about 
here  and  there,  and  there  was  a  brave 
array  of  scrubbing-brushes,  cloths, 
soap,  and  even  sand  and  soda,  for  it  had 
been  decided  and  manifested-by-the- 
u  sual  -  sign  -and  -  no  -  contrary  -  minded  - 
and-  it- was-a-vote  that  the  dirt  was  to 
come  off,  whether  the  paint  came  with 
it  or  not.  Each  of  the  fifteen  women 
present  selected  a  block  of  seats, 
preferably  one  in  which  her  own  was 
situated,  and  all  fell  busily  to  work. 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"  There  is  nobody  here  to  clean  the 
right-wing  pews/*  said  Nancy  Went- 
worth,  "  so  I  will  take  those  for  my 
share." 

"  You  're  not  making  a  very  wise 
choice,  Nancy,"  and  the  minister's 
wife  smiled  as  she  spoke.  "  The  in 
fant  class  of  the  Sunday-school  sits 
there,  you  know,  and  I  expect  the 
paint  has  had  extra  wear  and  tear. 
Families  don't  seem  to  occupy  those 
pews  regularly  nowadays." 

"  I  can  remember  when  every  seat 
in  the  whole  church  was  filled,  wings 
an'  all,"  mused  Mrs.  Sargent,  wring 
ing  out  her  washcloth  in  a  reminis 
cent  mood.  "The  one  in  front  o' 
you,  Nancy,  was  always  called  the 


THE  OLD  PEABODY  PEW 


4  deef  pew '  in  the  old  times,  and  all 
the  folks  that  was  hard  o'  hearin'  used 
to  congregate  there." 

"  The  next  pew  has  n't  been  occu 
pied  since  I  came  here/'  said  the  min 
ister's  wife. 

"  No,"  answered  Mrs.  Sargent,  glad 
of  any  opportunity  to  retail  neighbor 
hood  news.  "  'Squire  Bean's  folks 
have  moved  to  Portland  to  be  with 
the  married  daughter.  Somebody  has 
to  stay  with  her,  and  her  husband 
won't.  The  'Squire  ain't  a  strong 
man,  and  he  's  most  too  old  to  go  to 
meetin'  now.  The  youngest  son  has 
just  died  in  New  York,  so  I  hear." 

"  What  ailed  him  ?"  inquired  Ma 
ria  Sharp. 


THE  OLD  PEABODY  PEW 


"  I  guess  he  was  completely  wore 
out  takin'  care  of  his  health,"  re 
turned  Mrs.  Sargent.  "  He  had  a 
splendid  constitution  from  a  boy,  but 
he  was  always  afraid  it  would  n't 
last  him.  —  The  seat  back  o'  'Squire 
Bean's  is  the  old  Peabody  pew  — 
ain't  that  the  Peabody  pew  you're 
scrubbin',  Nancy  ?  " 

"I  believe  so,"  Nancy  answered, 
never  pausing  in  her  labors.  "It's 
so  long  since  anybody  sat  there,  it's 
hard  to  remember." 

"  It  is  the  Peabodys',  I  know  it, 
because  the  aisle  runs  right  up  facin' 
it.  I  can  see  old  Deacon  Peabody 
settin'  in  this  end  same  as  if  't  was 
yesterday." 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"He  had  died  before  Jere  and  I 
came  back  here  to  live,"  said  Mrs. 
Burbank.  "  The  first  I  remember, 
Justin  Peabody  sat  in  the  end  seat ; 
the  sister  that  died,  next,  and  in 
the  corner,  against  the  wall,  Mrs. 
Peabody,  with  a  crepe  shawl  and 
a  palmleaf  fan.  They  were  a  hand 
some  family.  You  used  to  sit  with 
them  sometimes,  Nancy ;  Esther  was 
great  friends  with  you." 

"Yes,  she  was,"  Nancy  replied, 
lifting  the  tattered  cushion  from  its 
place  and  brushing  it ;  "  and  I  with 
her.  —  What  is  the  use  of  scrubbing 
and  carpeting,  when  there  are  only 
twenty  pew-cushions  and  six  hassocks 
in  the  whole  church,  and  most  of 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


them  ragged?  How  can  I  ever  mend 
this?" 

"I  shouldn't  trouble  myself  to 
darn  other  people's  cushions  !  " 

This  unchristian  sentiment  came 
in  Mrs.  Miller's  ringing  tones  from 
the  rear  of  the  church. 

" 1  don't  know  why,"  argued  Maria 
Sharp.  "  I'm  going  to  mend  my  Aunt 
Achsa's  cushion,  and  we  have  n't 
spoken  for  years ;  but  hers  is  the  next 
pew  to  mine,  and  I  'm  going  to  have 
my  part  of  the  church  look  decent, 
even  if  she  is  too  stingy  to  do  her 
share.  Besides,  there  aren't  anyPea- 
bodys  left  to  do  their  own  darning, 
Nancy  was  friends  with  Esther." 
Yes,  it 's  nothing  more  than 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


right,"  Nancy  replied,  with  a  note 
of  relief  in  her  voice,  "  considering 
Esther." 

"  Though  he  don't  belong  to  the 
scrubbin'  sex,  there  is  one  Peabody 
alive,  as  you  know,  if  you  stop  to 
think,  Maria;  for  Justin's  alive,  and 
livin'  out  West  somewheres.  At  least, 
he  's  as  much  alive  as  ever  he  was ; 
he  was  as  good  as  dead  when  he  was 
twenty-one,  but  his  mother  was  al 
ways  too  soft-hearted  to  bury  him." 

There  was  considerable  laughter 
over  this  sally  of  the  outspoken  Mrs. 
Sargent,  whose  keen  wit  was  the  de 
light  of  the  neighborhood. 

"  I  know  he  's  alive  and  doing  busi 
ness  in  Detroit,  for  I  got  his  address 


THE  OLD  PEABODY  PEW 


a  week  or  ten  days  ago,  and  wrote, 
asking  him  if  he  'd  like  to  give  a 
couple  of  dollars  toward  repairing 
the  old  church." 

Everybody  looked  at  Mrs.  Burbank 
with  interest. 

"Has  n't  he  answered?"  asked 
Maria  Sharp. 

Nancy  Wentworth  held  her  breath, 
turned  her  face  to  the  wall,  and  si 
lently  wiped  the  paint  of  the  wain 
scoting.  The  blood  that  had  rushed 
into  her  cheeks  at  Mrs.  Sargent's  jeer 
ing  reference  to  Justin  Peabody  still 
lingered  there  for  any  one  who  ran 
to  rqad,  but  fortunately  nobody  ran ; 
they  were  too  busy  scrubbing. 

"  Not  yet.  Folks  don't  hurry  about 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


answering  when  you  ask  them  for 
a  contribution/'  replied  the  presi 
dent,  with  a  cynicism  common  to 
persons  who  collect  funds  for  char 
itable  purposes.  "George  Wickham 
sent  me  twenty-five  cents  from  Den 
ver.  When  I  wrote  him  a  receipt,  I 
said  thank  you  same  as  Aunt  Polly 
did  when  the  neighbors  brought  her 
a  piece  of  beef:  'Ever  so  much 
obleeged,  but  don't  forget  me  when 
you  come  to  kill  a  pig/  —  Now, 
Mrs.  Baxter,  you  shan't  clean  James 
Bruce's  pew,  or  what  was  his  before 
he  turned  Second  Advent.  I  '11  do 
that  myself,  for  he  used  to  be  in  my 
Sunday-school  class." 

"  He  's  the  backbone  o'  that  con- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


gregation  now,"  asserted  Mrs.  Sar 
gent,  "  and  they  say  he  's  goin'  to 
marry  Mrs.  Sam  Peters,  who  sings  in 
their  choir,  as  soon  as  his  year  is  up. 
They  make  a  perfect  fool  of  him  in 
that  church." 

"  You  can't  make  a  fool  of  a  man 
that  nature  ain't  begun  with,"  argued 
Miss  Brewster.  "  Jim  Bruce  never 
was  very  strong-minded,  but  I  declare 
it  seems  to  me  that  when  men  lose 
their  wives,  they  lose  their  wits !  I 
was  sure  Jim  would  marry  Hannah 
Thompson  that  keeps  house  for  him. 
I  suspected  she  was  lookin'  out  for 
a  life  job  when  she  hired  out  with 
him." 

"Hannah    Thompson     may   keep 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Jim's  house,  but  she  '11  never  keep 
Jim,  that 's  certain  !  "  affirmed  the 
president;  "and  I  can't  see  that  Mrs. 
Peters  will  better  herself  much." 

"  I  don't  blame  her,  for  one ! "  came 
in  no  uncertain  tones  from  the  left- 
wing  pews,  and  the  Widow  Buzzell 
rose  from  her  knees  and  approached 
the  group  by  the  pulpit.  "  If  there  's 
anything  duller  than  cookin'  three 
meals  a  day  for  yourself,  and  settin' 
down  and  eatin'  'em  by  yourself,  and 
then  gettin'  up  and  clearin'  'em  away 
after  yourself,  I  'd  like  to  know  it ! 
I  should  n't  want  any  good-lookin', 
pleasant-spoken  man  to  offer  himself 
to  me  without  he  expected  to  be 
snapped  up,  that 's  all !  But  if  you  Ve 


a* 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


made  out  to  get  one  husband  in  York 
County,  you  can  thank  the  Lord  and 
not  expect  any  more  favors.  I  used 
to  think  Tom  was  poor  comp'ny  and 
complain  I  could  n't  have  any  conver 
sation  with  him,  but  land,  I  could 
talk  at  him,  and  there 's  considerable 
comfort  in  that.  And  I  could  pick 
up  after  him !  Now  every  room  in 
my  house  is  clean,  and  every  closet 
and  bureau  drawer,  too;  I  can't 
start  drawin'  in  another  rug,  for  I  've 
got  all  the  rugs  I  can  step  foot  on. 
I  dried  so  many  apples  last  year  I 
shan't  need  to  cut  up  any  this  sea 
son.  My  jelly  and  preserves  ain't 
out,  and  there  I  am  ;  and  there  most 
of  us  are,  in  this  village,  without  a 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


man  to  take  steps  for  and  trot  'round 
after !  There  's  just  three  husbands 
among  the  fifteen  women  scrubbin' 
here  now,  and  the  rest  of  us  is  all 
old  maids  and  widders.  No  wonder 
the  men-folks  die,  or  move  away, 
like  Justin  Peabody ;  a  place  with 
such  a  mess  o'  women-folks  ain't 
healthy  to  live  in,  whatever  Lobelia 
Brewster  may  say." 


CHAPTER 
III 


Ill 


USTIN  PEABODY  had 
once  faithfully  strug 
gled  with  the  practical 
difficulties  of  life  in 
Edgewood,  or  so  he 
had  thought,  in  those  old  days  of 
which  Nancy  Wentworth  was  think 
ing  as  she  wiped  the  paint  of  the 
Peahody  pew.  Work  in  the  mills  did 
not  attract  him ;  he  had  no  capital  to 
invest  in  a  stock  of  goods  for  store- 
keeping  ;  school-teaching  offered  him 
only  a  pittance  ;  there  remained  then 
only  the  farm,  if  he  were  to  stay  at 
home  and  keep  his  mother  company. 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"  Justin  don't  seem  to  take  no 
holt  of  things,"  said  the  neighbors. 

"  Good  Heavens !  "  It  seemed  to 
him  that  there  were  no  things  to  take 
hold  of !  That  was  his  first  thought ; 
later  he  grew  to  think  that  the 
trouble  all  lay  in  himself,  and  both 
thoughts  bred  weakness. 

The  farm  had  somehow  supported 
the  family  in  the  old  Deacon's  time, 
but  Justin  seemed  unable  to  coax  a 
competence  from  the  soil.  He  could, 
and  did,  rise  early  and  work  late; 
till  the  earth,  sow  crops ;  but  he 
could  not  make  the  rain  fall  nor  the 
sun  shine  at  the  times  he  needed 
them,  and  the  elements,  however 
much  they  might  seem  to  favor  his 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


neighbors,  seldom  smiled  on  his  en 
terprises.  The  crows  liked  Justin's 
corn  better  than  any  other  in  Edge- 
wood.  It  had  a  richness  peculiar 
to  itself,  a  quality  that  appealed  to 
the  most  jaded  palate,  so  that  it 
was  really  worth  while  to  fly  over 
a  mile  of  intervening  fields  and  pay 
it  the  delicate  compliment  of  prefer 
ence. 

Justin  could  explain  the  attitude 
of  caterpillars,  worms,  grasshoppers, 
and  potato-bugs  toward  him  only  by 
assuming  that  he  attracted  them  as 
the  magnet  in  the  toy  boxes  attracts 
the  miniature  fishes. 

"  Land  o'  liberty!  look  at  'em  con 
gregate  !  "  ejaculated  Jabe  Slocum, 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


when  he  was  called  in  for  consul 
tation.  "  Now  if  you  'd  gone  in  for 
breedin'  insecks,  you  could  be  as 
proud  as  Cuffy  an'  exhibit  'em  at 
the  County  Fair !  They  'd  give  yer 
prizes  for  size  an'  numbers  an'  speed, 
I  guess!  Why,  say,  they  're  real 
crowded  for  room  —  the  plants  ain't 
give  'em  enough  leaves  to  roost  on ! 
Have  you  tried  '  Bug  Death '  ?  " 

"  It  acts  like  a  tonic  on  them," 
said  Justin  gloomily. 

"  Sho !  you  don't  say  so !  Now 
mine  can't  abide  the  sight  nor  smell 
of  it.  What  'bout  Paris  green?" 

"  They  thrive  on  it ;  it 's  as  good 
as  an  appetizer." 

"  Well,"  said  Jabe  Slocum,  revolv- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


ing  the  quid  of  tobacco  in  his  mouth 
reflectively,  "  the  bug  that  ain't  got 
no  objection  to  p'ison  is  a  bug  that 's 
got  ways  o'  thinkin'  an*  feelin'  an*  rea- 
sonin'  that  I  ain't  able  to  cope  with! 
P  Yaps  it 's  all  a  leadin'  o'  Providence. 
Mebbe  it  shows  you  'd  ought  to  quit 
farmin'  crops  an'  take  to  raisin'  live 
stock ! " 

Justin  did  just  that,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  a  year  or  two  later ;  but  stock  that 
has  within  itself  the  power  of  being 
"  live"  has  also  rare  qualifications  for 
being  dead  when  occasion  suits,  and 
it  generally  did  suit  Justin's  stock. 
It  proved  prone  not  only  to  all  the 
general  diseases  that  cattle-flesh  is 
heir  to,  but  was  capable  even  of  sui- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


cide.  At  least,  it  is  true  that  two 
valuable  Jersey  calves,  tied  to  stakes 
on  the  hillside,  had  flung  themselves 
violently  down  the  bank  and  stran 
gled  themselves  with  their  own  ropes 
in  a  manner  which  seemed  to  show 
that  they  found  no  pleasure  in  exist 
ence,  at  all  events  on  the  Peabody 
farm. 

These  were  some  of  the  little  trage 
dies  that  had  sickened  young  Justin 
Peabody  with  life  in  Edgewood,  and 
Nancy  Wentworth,  even  then,  real 
ized  some  of  them  and  sympathized 
without  speaking,  in  a  girl's  poor, 
helpless  way. 

Mrs.  Simpson  had  washed  the  floor 
in  the  right  wing  of  the  church  and 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Nancy  had  cleaned  all  the  paint.  Now 
she  sat  in  the  old  Peabody  pew  darn 
ing  the  forlorn,  faded  cushion  with 
gray  carpet-thread:  thread  as  gray 
as  her  own  life. 

The  scrubbing-party  had  moved 
to  its  labors  in  a  far  corner  of  the 
church,  and  two  of  the  women  were 
beginning  preparations  for  the  basket 
luncheons.  Nancy's  needle  was  no 
busier  than  her  memory.  Long  years 
ago  she  had  often  sat  in  the  Peabody 
pew,  sometimes  at  first  as  a  girl  of 
sixteen  when  asked  by  Esther,  and 
then,  on  coming  home  from  school  at 
eighteen,  "  finished,"  she  had  been 
invited  now  and  again  by  Mrs.  Pea- 
body  herself,  on  those  Sundays  when 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


her  own  invalid  mother  had  not  at 
tended  service. 

Those  were  wonderful  Sundays  — 
Sundays  of  quiet,  trembling  peace 
and  maiden  joy. 

Justin  sat  beside  her,  and  she  had 
been  sure  then,  but  had  long  since 
grown  to  doubt  the  evidence  of  her 
senses,  that  he,  too,  vibrated  with 
pleasure  at  the  nearness.  Was  there 
not  a  summer  morning  when  his  hand 
touched  her  white  lace  mitt  as  they 
held  the  hymn-book  together,  and 
the  lines  of  the 

Rise,  my  soul,  and  stretch  thy  wings, 
Thy  better  portion  trace, 

became  blurred  on  the  page  and 
melted  into  something  indistinguish- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


able  for  a  full  minute  or  two  after 
ward?  Were  there  not  looks,  and 
looks,  and  looks  ?  Or  had  she  some 
misleading  trick  of  vision  in  those 
days  ?  Justin's  dark,  handsome  pro 
file  rose  before  her  :  the  level  brows 
and  fine  lashes;  the  well-cut  nose  and 
lovable  mouth — the  Peabody  mouth 
and  chin,  somewhat  too  sweet  and 
pliant  for  strength,  perhaps.  Then 
the  eyes  turned  to  hers  in  the  old 
way,  just  for  a  fleeting  glance,  as 
they  had  so  often  done  at  prayer- 
meeting,  or  sociable,  or  Sunday  ser 
vice.  Was  it  not  a  man's  heart  she 
had  seen  in  them  ?  And  oh,  if  she 
could  only  be  sure  that  her  own 
woman's  heart  had  not  looked  out 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


from  hers,  drawn  from  its  maiden 
shelter  in  spite  of  all  her  wish  to 
keep  it  hidden  ! 

Then  followed  two  dreary  years  of 
indecision  and  suspense,  when  Jus 
tin's  eyes  met  hers  less  freely ;  when 
his  looks  were  always  gloomy  and 
anxious;  when  affairs  at  the  Peabody 
farm  grew  worse  and  worse ;  when 
his  mother  followed  her  husband, 
the  old  Deacon,  and  her  daughter 
Esther  to  the  burying-ground  in  the 
churchyard.  Then  the  end  of  all 
things  came,  the  end  of  the  world 
for  Nancy :  Justin's  departure  for 
the  West  in  a  very  frenzy  of  discour 
agement  over  the  narrowness  and 
limitation  and  injustice  of  his  lot ; 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


over  the  rockiness  and  barrenness  and 
unkindness  of  the  New  England  soil ; 
over  the  general  bitterness  of  fate 
and  the  "  bludgeonings  of  chance." 

He  was  a  failure,  born  of  a  family 
of  failures.  If  the  world  owed  him  a 
living,  he  had  yet  to  find  the  method 
by  which  it  could  be  earned.  All  this 
he  thought  and  uttered,  and  much 
more  of  the  same  sort.  In  these  days 
of  humbled  pride  self  was  paramount, 
though  it  was  a  self  he  despised. 
There  was  no  time  for  love.  Who 
was  he  for  a  girl  to  lean  upon  ?  —  he 
who  could  not  stand  erect  himself! 

He  bade  a  stiff  good-by  to  his  neigh 
bors,  and  to  Nancy  he  vouchsafed 
little  more.  A  handshake,  with  no 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


thrill  of  love  in  it  such  as  might  have 
furnished  her  palm,  at  least,  some 
memories  to  dwell  upon ;  a  few  stilted 
words  of  leave-taking;  a  halting, 
meaningless  sentence  or  two  about 
his  "  botch  "  of  life — then  he  walked 
away  from  the  Wentworth  doorstep. 
But  halfway  down  the  garden  path, 
where  the  shriveled  hollyhocks  stood 
like  sentinels,  did  a  wave  of  some 
thing  different  sweep  over  him  —  a 
wave  of  the  boyish,  irresponsible  past 
when  his  heart  had  wings  and  could 
fly  without  fear  to  its  mate  —  a  wave 
of  the  past  that  was  rushing  through 
Nancy's  mind,  well-nigh  burying  her 
in  its  bitter-sweet  waters?  For  he 
lifted  his  head,  and  suddenly  re- 


• 


"YOU'LL  SEE  ME  BACK  WHEN  MY  LUCK  TURNS.  NANCY" 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


tracing  his  steps,  he  came  toward  her, 
and,  taking  her  hand  again,  said  for 
lornly:  "You'll  see  me  back  when 
my  luck  turns,  Nancy." 

Nancy  knew  that  the  words  might 
mean  little  or  much,  according  to  the 
manner  in  which  they  were  uttered, 
but  to  her  hurt  pride  and  sore, 
shamed  woman-instinct,  they  were  a 
promise,  simply  because  there  was 
a  choking  sound  in  Justin's  voice  and 
tears  in  Justin's  eyes.  "  You  '11  see 
me  back  when  my  luck  turns,  Nancy ;" 
this  was  the  phrase  upon  which  she 
had  lived  for  more  than  ten  years. 
Nancy  had  once  heard  the  old  parson 
say,  ages  ago,  that  the  whole  purpose 
of  life  was  the  growth  of  the  soul ; 


59 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


that  we  eat,  sleep,  clothe  ourselves, 
work,  love,  all  to  give  the  soul  another 
day,  month,  year,  in  which  to  de 
velop.  She  used  to  wonder  if  her 
soul  could  be  growing  in  the  monoto 
nous  round  of  her  dull  duties  and 
her  duller  pleasures.  She  did  not  con 
fess  it  even  to  herself;  nevertheless 
she  knew  that  she  worked,  ate,  slept, 
to  live  until  Justin's  luck  turned. 
Her  love  had  lain  in  her  heart  a  bird 
without  a  song,  year  after  year.  Her 
mother  had  dwelt  by  her  side  and 
never  guessed  ;  her  father,  too ;  and 
both  were  dead.  The  neighbors  also, 
lynx-eyed  and  curious,  had  never  sus 
pected.  If  she  had  suffered,  no  one  in 
Edgewood  was  any  the  wiser,  for  the 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


maiden  heart  is  not  commonly  worn 
on  the  sleeve  in  New  England.  If 
she  had  been  openly  pledged  to  Jus 
tin  Peabody,  she  could  have  waited 
twice  ten  years  with  a  decent  show 
of  self-respect,  for  long  engagements 
were  viewed  rather  as  a  matter  of 
course  in  that  neighborhood.  The 
endless  months  had  gone  on  since 
that  gray  November  day  when  Justin 
had  said  gcod-by.  It  had  been  just 
before  Thanksgiving,  and  she  went 
to  church  with  an  aching  and  un 
grateful  heart.  The  parson  read  from 
the  eighth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew, 
a  most  unexpected  selection  for  that 
holiday.  "If  you  can't  find  anything 
else  to  be  thankful  for,"  he  cried, 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"go  home  and  be  thankful  you  are 
not  a  leper  !  " 

Nancy  took  the  drastic  counsel 
away  from  the  church  with  her,  and 
it  was  many  a  year  before  she  could 
manage  to  add  to  this  slender  store 
anything  to  increase  her  gratitude 
for  mercies  given,  though  all  the 
time  she  was  outwardly  busy,  cheer 
ful,  and  helpful. 

Justin  had  once  come  back  to 
Edgewood,  and  it  was  the  bitterest 
drop  in  her  cup  of  bitterness  that  she 
was  spending  that  winter  in  Berwick 
(where,  so  the  neighbors  told  him, 
she  was  a  great  favorite  in  society,  and 
was  receiving  much  attention  from 
gentlemen),  so  that  she  had  never 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


heard  of  his  visit  until  the  spring  had 
come  again.  Parted  friends  did  not 
keep  up  with  one  another's  affairs 
by  means  of  epistolary  communica 
tion,  in  those  days,  in  Edgewood ;  it 
was  not  the  custom.  Spoken  words 
were  difficult  enough  to  Justin  Pea- 
body,  and  written  words  were  quite 
impossible,  especially  if  they  were  to 
be  used  to  define  his  half-conscious 
desires  and  his  fluctuations  of  will,  or 
to  recount  his  disappointments  and 
discouragements  and  mistakes. 


IV 

T  was  Saturday  af 
ternoon,  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  December, 
and  the  weary  sisters 
of  the  Dorcas  band 
rose  from  their  bruised  knees  and 
removed  their  little  stores  of  carpet- 
tacks  from  their  mouths.  This  was 
a  feminine  custom  of  long  standing, 
and  as  no  village  dressmaker  had  ever 
died  of  pins  in  the  digestive  organs, 
so  were  no  symptoms  of  carpet-tacks 
ever  discovered  in  any  Dorcas,  living 
or  dead.  Men  wondered  at  the  habit 
and  reviled  it,  but  stood  confounded 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


in  the  presence  of  its  indubitable 
harmlessness. 

The  red  ingrain  carpet  was  indeed 
very  warm,  beautiful,  and  comforting 
to  the  eye,  and  the  sisters  were  suit 
ably  grateful  to  Providence,  and  de 
voutly  thankful  to  themselves,  that 
they  had  been  enabled  to  buy,  sew, 
and  lay  so  many  yards  of  it.  But  as 
they  stood  looking  at  their  completed 
task,  it  was  cruelly  true  that  there 
was  much  left  to  do. 

The  aisles  had  been  painted  dark 
brown  on  each  side  of  the  red  strips 
leading  from  the  doors  to  the  pulpit, 
but  the  rest  of  the  church  floor  was 
"  a  thing  of  shreds  and  patches." 
Each  member  of  the  carpet  com- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


mittee  had  paid  (as  a  matter  of  pride, 
however  ill  she  could  afford  it)  three 
dollars  and  sixty-seven  cents  for  suffi 
cient  carpet  to  lay  in  her  own  pew ; 
but  these  brilliant  spots  of  conscien 
tious  effort  only  made  the  stretches 
of  bare,  unpainted  floor  more  evident. 
And  that  was  not  all.  Traces  of  for 
mer  spasmodic  and  individual  efforts 
desecrated  the  present  ideals.  The 
doctor's  pew  had  a  pink  and  blue 
Brussels  on  it ;  the  lawyer's,  striped 
stair  -  carpeting  ;  the  Browns  from 
Deerwander  sported  straw  matting 
and  were  not  abashed ;  while  the 
Greens,  the  Whites,  the  Blacks,  and 
the  Grays  displayed  floor  coverings 
as  dissimilar  as  their  names. 


[SS 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"  I  never  noticed  it  before ! "  ex 
claimed  Maria  Sharp,  "but  it  ain't 
Christian,  that  floor!  it 's  heathenish 
and  ungodly ! " 

"  For  mercy's  sake,  don't  swear, 
Maria,"  said  Mrs.  Miller  nervously. 
"  We  've  done  our  best,  and  let 's  hope 
that  folks  will  look  up  and  not  down. 
It  is  n't  as  if  they  were  going  to  set 
in  the  chandelier  ;  they  '11  have  some 
thing  else  to  think  about  when  Nancy 
gets  her  hemlock  branches  and  white 
carnations  in  the  pulpit  vases.  This 
morning  my  Abner  picked  off  two 
pinks  from  the  plant  I  've  been  nurs 
ing  in  my  dining-room  for  weeks,  try 
ing  to  make  it  bloom  for  Christmas. 
I  slapped  his  hands  good,  and  it's 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


been  haunting  me  ever  since  to  think 
I  had  to  correct  him  the  day  before 
Christmas.  —  Come,  Lobelia,  we  must 
be  hurrying ! " 

"  One  thing  comforts  me,"  ex 
claimed  the  Widow  Buzzell,  as  she 
took  her  hammer  and  tacks  prepara 
tory  to  leaving ;  "  and  that  is  that 
the  Methodist  meetin'-house  ain't 
got  any  carpet  at  all/' 

"  Mrs.  Buzzell,  Mrs.  Buzzell !  "  in 
terrupted  the  minister's  wife,  with  a 
smile  that  took  the  sting  from  her 
speech.  "It  will  be  like  punishing 
little  Abner  Miller  ;  if  we  think  those 
thoughts  on  Christmas  Eve,  we  shall 
surely  be  haunted  afterward." 

"  And  anyway,"  interjected  Maria 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Sharp,  who  always  saved  the  situa 
tion,  "  you  just  wait  and  see  if  the 
Methodists  don't  say  they  'd  rather 
have  no  carpet  at  all  than  have 
one  that  don't  go  all  over  the  floor.  I 
know  'em! "  and  she  put  on  her  hood 
and  blanket-shawl  as  she  gave  one 
last  fond  look  at  the  improvements. 

"  I  'm  going  home  to  get  my  sup 
per,  and  come  back  afterward  to  lay 
the  carpet  in  my  pew  ;  my  beans  and 
brown  bread  will  be  just  right  by 
now,  and  perhaps  it  will  rest  me  a 
little ;  besides,  I  must  feed  'Zekiel." 

As  Nancy  Wentworth  spoke,  she  sat 
in  a  corner  of  her  own  modest  rear 
seat,  looking  a  little  pale  and  tired. 
Her  waving  dark  hair  had  loosened 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


and  fallen  over  her  cheeks,  and  her 
eyes  gleamed  from  under  it  wistfully. 
Nowadays  Nancy's  eyes  never  had 
the  sparkle  of  gazing  into  the  future, 
but  always  the  liquid  softness  that 
comes  from  looking  backward. 

"  The  church  will  be  real  cold  by 
then,  Nancy,"  objected  Mrs.  Bur- 
bank.  —  "  Good-night,  Mrs.  Baxter." 

"  Oh,  no !  I  shall  be  back  by  half- 
past  six,  and  I  shall  not  work  long. 
Do  you  know  what  I  believe  I  '11  do, 
Mrs.  Burbank,  just  through  the  holi 
days?  Christmas  and  New  Year's 
both  coming  on  Sunday  this  year, 
there  '11  be  a  great  many  out  to 
church,  not  counting  the  strangers 
that'll  come  to  the  special  service 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


; 


to-morrow.  Instead  of  putting  down 
my  own  pew  carpet  that  '11  never  be 
noticed  here  in  the  back,  I'll  lay 
it  in  the  old  Peabody  pew,  for  the 
red  aisle-strip  leads  straight  up  to 
it;  the  ministers  always  go  up  that 
side,  and  it  does  look  forlorn." 

"  That 's  so!  And  all  the  more  be 
cause  my  pew,  that 's  exactly  oppo 
site  in  the  left  wing,  is  new  carpeted 
and  cushioned,"  replied  the  president. 
"  I  think  it 's  real  generous  of  you, 
Nancy,  because  the  Rlverboro  folks, 
knowing  that  you  're  a  member  of 
the  carpet  committee,  will  be  sure 
to  notice,  and  think  it 's  queer  you 
have  n't  made  an  effort  to  carpet  your 
own  pew." 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"Never  mind!"  smiled  Nancy  wea 
rily.  "  Riverboro  folks  never  go 
to  bed  on  Saturday  nights  without 
wondering  what  Edgewood  is  think 
ing  about  them ! " 

The  minister's  wife  stood  at  her 
window  watching  Nancy  as  she  passed 
the  parsonage. 

"  How  wasted !  How  wasted !  " 
she  sighed.  "  Going  home  to  eat  her 
lonely  supper  and  feed  'Zekiel.  .  .  . 
I  can  bear  it  for  the  others,  but  not 
for  Nancy.  .  .  .  Now  she  has  lighted 
her  lamp,  .  .  .  now  she  has  put  fresh 
pine  on  the  fire,  for  new  smoke  comes 
from  the  chimney.  Why  should  I  sit 
down  and  serve  my  dear  husband, 
and  Nancy  feed  'Zekiel  ?  " 


THE  OLD  PEABODY  PEW 


There  was  some  truth  in  Mrs.  Bax 
ter's  feeling.  Mrs.  Buzzell,  for  in 
stance,  had  three  sons  ;  Maria  Sharp 
was  absorbed  in  her  lame  father  and 
her  Sunday-school  work ;  and  Lobelia 
Brewster  would  not  have  considered 
matrimony  a  blessing,  even  under  the 
most  favorable  conditions.  But  Nancy 
was  framed  and  planned  for  other 
things,  and  'Zekiel  was  an  insufficient 
channel  for  her  soft,  womanly  sym 
pathy  and  her  bright  activity  of  mind 
and  body. 

'Zekiel  had  lost  his  tail  in  a  mow 
ing-machine  ;  'Zekiel  had  the  asthma, 
and  the  immersion  of  his  nose  in  milk 
made  him  sneeze,  so  he  was  wont  to 
slip  his  paw  in  and  out  of  the  dish 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


and  lick  it  patiently  for  five  minutes 
together.  Nancy  often  watched  him 
pityingly,  giving  him  kind  and  gentle 
words  to  sustain  his  fainting  spirit, 
but  to-night  she  paid  no  heed  to  him, 
although  he  sneezed  violently  to  at 
tract  her  attention. 

She  had  put  her  supper  on  the 
lighted  table  by  the  kitchen  win 
dow  and  was  pouring  out  her  cup  of 
tea,  when  a  boy  rapped  at  the  door. 
"  Here 's  a  paper  and  a  letter,  Miss 
Wentworth,"  he  said.  "  It 's  the  sec 
ond  this  week,  and  they  think  over 
to  the  store  that  that  Berwick  wid 
ower  must  be  settin'  up  and  takin' 
notice ! " 

She  had  indeed  received  a  letter 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


the  day  before,  an  unsigned  commu 
nication,  consisting  only  of  the  words, 
"  Second  Epistle  of  John.  Verse  12." 

She  had  taken  her  Bible  to  look 
out  the  reference  and  found  it  to  be : 

"  Having  many  things  to  write  unto 
you,  I  would  not  write  with  paper  and 
ink :  but  I  trust  to  come  unto  you,  and 
speak  face  to  face,  that  our  joy  may  be 
full." 

The  envelope  was  postmarked  New 
York,  and  she  smiled,  thinking  that 
Mrs.  Emerson,  a  charming  lady  who 
had  spent  the  summer  in  Edgewood, 
and  had  sung  with  her  in  the  village 
choir,  was  coming  back,  as  she  had 
promised,  to  have  a  sleigh  ride  and 
see  Edgewood  in  its  winter  dress. 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Nancy  had  almost  forgotten  the  first 
letter  in  the  excitements  of  her  busy 
day,  and  now  here  was  another,  from 
Boston  this  time.  She  opened  the 
envelope  and  found  again  only  a 
single  sentence,  printed,  not  written. 
(Lest  she  should  guess  the  hand,  she 
wondered  ?) 

"Second  Epistle  of  John.  Verse 
5." 

" And  now  I  beseech  thee,  lady,  not 
as  though  I  wrote  a  new  commandment 
unto  thee,  but  that  which  we  had  from 
the  beginning,  that  we  love  one  another" 

Was  it  Mrs.  Emerson?  Could  it 

be  —  any  one  else  ?  Was  it ?  No, 

it  might  have  been,  years  ago ;  but 
not  now  ;  not  now  !  —  And  yet ;  he 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


was  always  so  different  from  other 
people  ;  and  once,  in  church,  he  had 
handed  her  the  hymn-book  with  his 
finger  pointing  to  a  certain  verse. 

She  always  fancied  that  her  secret 
fidelity  of  heart  rose  from  the  fact 
that  Justin  Peabody  was  "  different." 
From  the  hour  of  their  first  acquaint 
ance,  she  was  ever  comparing  him 
with  his  companions,  and  always  to 
his  advantage.  So  long  as  a  woman 
finds  all  men  very  much  alike  (as 
Lobelia  Brewster  did,  save  that  she 
allowed  some  to  be  worse  !),  she  is  in 
no  danger.  But  the  moment  in  which 
she  perceives  and  discriminates  subtle 
differences,  marveling  that  there  can 
be  two  opinions  about  a  man's  supe 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


riority,  that  moment  the  miracle  has 
happened. 

"And  now  I  beseech  thee,  lady,  not 
as  though  I  wrote  a  new  commandment 
unto  thee,  but  that  which  we  had  from 
the  beginning,  that  we  love  one  another." 

No,  it  could  not  be  from  Justin. 
She  drank  her  tea,  played  with  her 
beans  abstractedly,  and  nibbled  her 
slice  of  steaming  brown  bread. 

"Not  as  though  I  wrote  a  new  com 
mandment  unto  thee." 

No,  not  a  new  one ;  twelve,  fifteen 
years  old,  that  commandment ! 

"  That  we  love  one  another" 

Who  was  speaking  ?  Who  had 
written  these  words  ?  The  first  letter 
sounded  just  like  Mrs.  Emerson,  who 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


had  said  she  was  a  very  poor  corre 
spondent,  but  that  she  should  just 
"drop  down"  on  Nancy  one  of  these 
days;  but  this  second  letter  never 
came  from  Mrs.  Emerson.  —  Well, 
there  would  be  an  explanation  some 
time ;  a  pleasant  one ;  one  to  smile 
over,  and  tell  'Zekiel  and  repeat  to 
the  neighbors ;  but  not  an  unex 
pected,  sacred,  beautiful  explanation, 
such  a  one  as  the  heart  of  a  woman 
could  imagine,  if  she  were  young 
enough  and  happy  enough  to  hope. 

She  washed  her  cup  and  plate; 
replaced  the  uneaten  beans  in  the 
brown  pot,  and  put  them  away  with 
the  round  loaf,  folded  the  cloth 
(Lobelia  Brewster  said  Nancy  always 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"  set  out  her  meals  as  if  she  was  enter- 
tainin'  company  from  Portland"), 
closed  the  stove  dampers,  carried  the 
lighted  lamp  to  a  safe  corner  shelf, 
and  lifted  'Zekiel  to  his  cushion  on 
the  high-backed  rocker,  doing  all 
with  the  nice  precision  of  long  habit. 
Then  she  wrapped  herself  warmly, 
and  locking  the  lonely  little  house 
behind  her,  set  out  to  finish  her  work 
in  the  church. 


T  this  precise  moment 
Justin  Peabody  was 
eating  his  own  beans 
and  brown  bread  (ar 
ticles  of  diet  of  which 
his  Detroit  landlady  was  lamentably 
ignorant)  at  the  new  tavern,  not  far 
from  the  meeting-house. 

It  would  not  be  fair  to  him  to 
say  that  Mrs.  Burbank's  letter  had 
brought  him  back  to  Edgewood,  but 
it  had  certainly  accelerated  his  steps. 
For  the  first  six  years  after  Justin 
Peabody  left  home,  he  had  drifted 
about  from  place  to  place,  saving 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


every  possible  dollar  of  his  uncertain 
earnings  in  the  conscious  hope  that 
he  could  go  back  to  New  England 
and  ask  Nancy  Wentworth  to  marry 
him.  The  West  was  prosperous  and 
progressive,  but  how  he  yearned,  in 
idle  moments,  for  the  grimmer  and 
more  sterile  soil  that  had  given  him 
birth ! 

Then  came  what  seemed  to  him  a 
brilliant  chance  for  a  lucky  turn  of 
his  savings,  and  he  invested  them  in 
an  enterprise  which,  wonderfully  as 
it  promised,  failed  within  six  months 
and  left  him  penniless.  At  that  mo 
ment  he  definitely  gave  up  all  hope, 
and  for  the  next  few  years  he  put 
Nancy  as  far  as  possible  out  of  his 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


mind,  in  the  full  belief  that  he  was 
acting  an  honorable  part  in  refusing 
to  drag  her  into  his  tangled  and  fruit 
less  way  of  life.  If  she  ever  did  care 
for  him,  —  and  he  could  not  be  sure, 
she  was  always  so  shy,  —  she  must 
have  outgrown  the  feeling  long  since, 
and  be  living  happily,  or  at  least  con 
tentedly,  in  her  own  way.  He  was 
glad  in  spite  of  himself  when  he 
heard  that  she  had  never  married ; 
but  at  least  he  had  n't  it  on  his  con 
science  that  he  had  kept  her  single  ! 
On  the  seventeenth  of  Decem 
ber,  Justin,  his  business  day  over, 
was  walking  toward  the  dreary  house 
in  which  he  ate  and  slept.  As  he 
turned  the  corner,  he  heard  one 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


woman  say  to  another,  as  they  watched 
a  man  stumbling  sorrowfully  down 
the  street :  "  Going  home  will  be  the 
worst  of  all  for  him  — to  find  nobody 
there  !  "  That  was  what  going  home 
had  meant  for  him  these  ten  years, 
but  he  afterward  felt  it  strange  that 
this  thought  should  have  struck  him 
so  forcibly  on  that  particular  day.  En 
tering  the  boarding-house,  he  found 
Mrs.  Burbank's  letter  with  its  Edge- 
wood  postmark  on  the  hall  table,  and 
took  it  up  to  his  room.  He  kindled 
a  little  fire  in  the  air-tight  stove, 
watching  the  flame  creep  from  shav 
ings  to  kindlings,  from  kindlings  to 
small  pine,  and  from  small  pine  to 
the  round,  hardwood  sticks ;  then 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


when  the  result  seemed  certain,  he 
closed  the  stove  door  and  sat  down 
to  read  the  letter.  Whereupon  all 
manner  of  strange  things  happened 
in  his  head  and  heart  and  flesh  and 
spirit  as  he  sat  there  alone,  his  hands 
in  his  pockets,  his  feet  braced  against 
the  legs  of  the  stove. 

It  was  a  cold  winter  night,  and 
the  snow  and  sleet  beat  against  the 
windows.  He  looked  about  the  ugly 
room :  at  the  washstand  with  its 
square  of  oilcloth  in  front  and  its 
detestable  bowl  and  pitcher ;  at  the 
rigors  of  his  white  iron  bedstead,  with 
the  valley  in  the  middle  of  the  lumpy 
mattress  and  the  darns  in  the  rumpled 
pillowcases  ;  at  the  dull  photographs 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


of  the  landlady's  hideous  husband  and 
children  enshrined  on  the  mantel 
shelf;  looked  at  the  abomination  of 
desolation  surrounding  him  until  his 
soul  sickened  and  cried  out  like  a 
child's  for  something  more  like  home. 
It  was  as  if  a  spring  thaw  had  melted 
his  ice-bound  heart,  and  on  the  crest 
of  a  wave  it  was  drifting  out  into  the 
milder  waters  of  some  unknown 
sea.  He  could  have  laid  his  head 
in  the  kind  lap  of  a  woman  and  cried : 
"  Comfort  me  !  Give  me  companion 
ship  or  I  die  !  " 

The  wind  howled  in  the  chimney 
and  rattled  the  loose  window-sashes ; 
the  snow,  freezing  as  it  fell,  dashed 
against  the  glass  with  hard,  cutting 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


little  blows ;  at  least,  that  is  the  way 
in  which  the  wind  and  snow  flattered 
themselves  they  were  making  exist 
ence  disagreeable  to  Justin  Peabody 
when  he  read  the  letter ;  but  never 
were  elements  more  mistaken. 

It  was  a  June  Sunday  in  the 
boarding-house  bedroom;  and  for 
that  matter  it  was  not  the  board 
ing-house  bedroom  at  all :  it  was  the 
old  Orthodox  church  on  Tory  Hill 
in  Edgewood. 

The  windows  were  wide  open,  and 
the  smell  of  the  purple  clover  and 
the  humming  of  the  bees  were 
drifting  into  the  sweet,  wide  spaces 
within.  Justin  was  sitting  in  the 
end  of  the  Peabody  pew,  and  Nancy 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Wentworth  was  beside  him ;  Nancy, 
cool  and  restful  in  her  white  dress ; 
dark-haired  Nancy  under  the  shadow 
of  her  shirred  muslin  hat. 

Kise,  my  soul,  and  stretch  thy  wings, 
Thy  better  portion  trace. 

The  melodeon  gave  the  tune,  and 
Nancy  and  he  stood  to  sing,  taking 
the  book  between  them.  His  hand 
touched  hers,  and  as  the  music  of 
the  hymn  rose  and  fell,  the  future 
unrolled  itself  before  his  eyes  :  a  fu 
ture  in  which  Nancy  was  his  wedded 
wife  ;  and  the  happy  years  stretched 
on  and  on  in  front  of  them  until  there 
was  a  row  of  little  heads  in  the  old 
Peabody  pew,  and  mother  and  father 
€ould  look  proudly  along  the  line  at 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


the  young  things  they  were  bringing 
into  the  house  of  the  Lord. 

The  recalling  of  that  vision  worked 
like  magic  in  Justin's  blood.  His  soul 
rose  and  stretched  its  wings  and 
"  traced  its  better  portion  "  vividly, 
as  he  sprang  to  his  feet  and  walked 
up  and  down  the  bedroom  floor.  He 
would  get  a  few  days'  leave  and  go 
back  to  Edgewood  for  Christmas,  to 
join,  with  all  the  old  neighbors,  in 
the  service  at  the  meeting-house ; 
and  in  pursuance  of  this  resolve,  he 
shook  his  fist  in  the  face  of  the  land 
lady's  husband  on  the  mantelpiece 
and  dared  him  to  prevent. 

He  had  a  salary  of  fifty  dollars  a 
month,  with  some  very  slight  pros- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


pect  of  an  increase  after  January. 
He  did  not  see  how  two  persons 
could  eat,  and  drink,  and  lodge,  and 
dress  on  it  in  Detroit,  but  he  pro 
posed  to  give  Nancy  Wentworth  the 
refusal  of  that  magnificent  future, 
that  brilliant  and  tempting  offer. 
He  had  exactly  one  hundred  dollars 
in  the  bank,  and  sixty  or  seventy  of 
them  would  be  spent  in  the  journeys, 
counting  two  happy,  blessed  fares 
back  from  Edgewood  to  Detroit ;  and 
if  he  paid  only  his  own  fare  back,  he 
would  throw  the  price  of  the  other 
into  the  pond  behind  the  Went 
worth  house.  He  would  drop  another 
ten  dollars  into  the  plate  on  Christ 
mas  Day  toward  the  repairs  on  the 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


church ;  if  he  starved,  he  would  do 
that.  He  was  a  failure.  Everything 
his  hand  touched  turned  to  naught. 
He  looked  himself  full  in  the  face, 
recognizing  his  weakness,  and  in  this 
supremest  moment  of  recognition  he 
was  a  stronger  man  than  he  had 
been  an  hour  before.  His  drooping 
shoulders  had  straightened  ;  the  rest 
less  look  had  gone  from  his  eyes  ; 
his  sombre  face  had  something  of 
repose  in  it,  the  repose  of  a  settled 
purpose.  He  was  a  failure,  but  per 
haps  if  he  took  the  risks  (and  if 
Nancy  would  take  them  —  but  that 
was  the  trouble,  women  were  so 
unselfish,  they  were  always  willing 
to  take  risks,  and  one  ought  not  to 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


let  them !),  perhaps  he  might  do 
better  in  trying  to  make  a  living  for 
two  than  he  had  in  working  for  him 
self  alone.  He  would  go  home,  tell 
Nancy  that  he  was  an  unlucky  good- 
for-naught,  and  ask  her  if  she  would 
try  her  hand  at  making  him  over. 


CHAPTER 
VI 


VI 

HESE  were  the  reasons 
that  had  brought  Jus 
tin  Peabody  to  Edge- 
wood  on  the  Satur 
day  afternoon  before 
Christmas,  and  had  taken  him  to  the 
new  tavern  on  Tory  Hill,  near  the 
meeting-house. 

Nobody  recognized  him  at  the 
station  or  noticed  him  at  the  tav 
ern,  and  after  his  supper  he  put 
on  his  overcoat  and  started  out  for 
a  walk,  aimlessly  hoping  that  he 
might  meet  a  friend,  or  failing  that, 
intending  to  call  on  some  of  his  old 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


neighbors,  with  the  vi.ew  of  hearing 
the  village  news  and  securing  some 
information  which  might  help  him  to 
decide  when  he  had  better  lay  him 
self  and  his  misfortunes  at  Nancy 
Wentworth's  feet.  They  were  pretty 
feet !  He  remembered  that  fact 
well  enough  under  the  magical  in 
fluence  of  familiar  sights  and  sounds 
and  odors.  He  was  restless,  miserable, 
anxious,  homesick  —  not  for  Detroit, 
but  for  some  heretofore  unimagined 
good;  yet,  like  Bunyan's  shepherd 
boy  in  the  Valley  of  Humiliation,  he 
carried  "  the  herb  called  Heartsease 
in  his  bosom,"  for  he  was  at  last  lov 
ing  consciously. 

How  white  the  old  church  looked, 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


and  how  green  the  blinds !  It  must 
have  been  painted  very  lately  :  that 
meant  that  the  parish  was  fairly 
prosperous.  There  were  new  shut 
ters  in  the  belfry  tower,  too  ;  he  re 
membered  the  former  open  space 
and  the  rusty  bell,  and  he  liked  the 
change.  Did  the  chimney  use  to  be 
in  that  corner?  No;  but  his  father 
had  always  said  it  would  have  drawn 
better  if  it  had  been  put  there  in 
the  beginning.  New  shingles  within 
a  year  :  that  was  evident  to  a  prac 
ticed  eye.  He  wondered  if  anything 
had  been  done  to  the  inside  of  the 
building,  but  he  must  wait  until 
the  morrow  to  see,  for,  of  course,  the 
doors  would  be  locked.  No  ;  the  one 


THE  OLD  PEABODY  PEW 


at  the  right  side  was  ajar.  He  opened 
it  softly  and  stepped  into  the  tiny 
square  entry  that  he  recalled  so  well 

—  the  one  through  which  the  Sun 
day-school  children  ran  out  to  the 
steps   from   their  catechism,  appar 
ently  enjoying  the  sunshine  after  a 
spell  of  orthodoxy ;  the  little  entry 
where  the  village  girls  congregated 
while  waiting  for  the  last  bell  to  ring 

—  they  made  a  soft  blur  of  pink  and 
blue  and  buff,  a  little  flutter  of  curls 
and  braids  and  fans  and  sunshades, 
in  his  mind's  eye,  as  he  closed  the 
outer  door  behind  him  and  gently 
opened  the  inner  one.    The  church 
was    flooded   with    moonlight    and 
snowlight,  and  there  was  one  lamp 


I 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


burning  at  the  back  of  the  pulpit ; 
a  candle,  too,  on  the  pulpit  steps. 
There  was  the  tip-tap-tip  of  a  tack- 
hammer  going  on  in  a  distant  corner. 
Was  somebody  hanging  Christmas 
garlands?  The  new  red  carpet  at 
tracted  his  notice,  and  as  he  grew 
accustomed  to  the  dim  light,  it  car 
ried  his  eye  along  the  aisle  he  had 
trod  so  many  years  of  Sundays,  to 
the  old  familiar  pew.  The  sound 
of  the  hammer  ceased,  and  a  woman 
rose  from  her  knees.  A  stranger  was 
doing  for  the  family  honor  what  he 
ought  himself  to  have  done.  The 
woman  turned  to  shake  her  skirt,  and 
it  was  Nancy  Wentworth.  He  might 
have  known  it.  Women  were  always 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


faithful ;  they  always  remembered  old 
landmarks,  old  days,  old  friends,  old 
duties.  His  father  and  mother  and 
Esther  were  all  gone  ;  who  but  dear 
Nancy  would  have  made  the  old 
Peabody  pew  right  and  tidy  for  the 
Christmas  festival  ?  Bless  her  kind 
womanly  heart ! 

She  looked  just  the  same  to  him 
as  when  he  last  saw  her.  Mercifully 
he  seemed  to  have  held  in  remem 
brance  all  these  years  not  so  much 
her  youthful  bloom  as  her  general 
qualities  of  mind  and  heart :  her 
cheeriness,  her  spirit,  her  unflagging 
zeal,  her  bright  womanliness.  Her 
gray  dress  was  turned  up  in  front 
over  a  crimson  moreen  petticoat. 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


She  had  on  a  cosy  jacket,  a  fur  tur 
ban  of  some  sort  with  a  red  breast 
in  it,  and  her  cheeks  were  flushed 
from  exertion.  "  Sweet  records,  and 
promises  as  sweet,"  had  always  met 
in  Nancy's  face,  and  either  he  had 
forgotten  how  pretty  she  was,  or  else 
she  had  absolutely  grown  prettier 
during  his  absence. 

Nancy  would  have  chosen  the  su 
preme  moment  of  meeting  very  dif 
ferently,  but  she  might  well  have 
chosen  worse.  She  unpinned  her 
skirt  and  brushed  the  threads  off, 
smoothed  the  pew  cushions  carefully, 
and  took  a  last  stitch  in  the  ragged 
hassock.  She  then  lifted  the  Bible 
and  the  hymn-book  from  the  rack, 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


and  putting  down  a  bit  of  flannel  on 
the  pulpit  steps,  took  a  flatiron  from 
an  oil-stove,  and  opening  the  ancient 
books,  pressed  out  the  well-thumbed 
leaves  one  by  one  with  infinite  care. 
After  replacing  the  volumes  in  their 
accustomed  place,  she  first  extin 
guished  the  flame  of  her  stove,  which 
she  tucked  out  of  sight,  and  then 
blew  out  the  lamp  and  the  candle. 
The  church  was  still  light  enough  for 
objects  to  be  seen  in  a  shadowy  way, 
like  the  objects  in  a  dream,  and  Jus 
tin  did  not  realize  that  he  was  a  man 
in  the  flesh,  looking  at  a  woman ; 
spying,  it  might  be,  upon  her  pri 
vacy.  He  was  one  part  of  a  dream 
and  she  another,  and  he  stood  as  if 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


waiting,  and  fearing,  to  be  awak 
ened. 

Nancy,  having  done  all,  came  out 
of  the  pew,  and  standing  in  the  aisle, 
looked  back  at  the  scene  of  her  labors 
with  pride  and  content.  And  as  she 
looked,  some  desire  to  stay  a  little 
longer  in  the  dear  old  place  must 
have  come  over  her,  or  some  dread 
of  going  back  to  her  lonely  cottage, 
for  she  sat  down  in  Justin's  corner 
of  the  pew  with  folded  hands,  her 
eyes  fixed  dreamily  on  the  pulpit 
and  her  ears  hearing :  "  Not  as 
though  I  wrote  a  new  commandment 
unto  thee,  but  that  which  we  had  from 
the  beginning." 

Justin's  grasp  on  the  latch  tight- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


ened  as  he  prepared  to  close  the 
door  and  leave  the  place,  but  his 
instinct  did  not  warn  him  quickly 
enough,  after  all,  for,  obeying  some 
uncontrollable  impulse,  Nancy  sud 
denly  fell  on  her  knees  in  the  pew 
and  buried  her  face  in  the  cushions. 

The  dream  broke,  and  in  an  instant 
Justin  was  a  man  —  worse  than  that, 
he  was  an  eavesdropper,  ashamed  of 
his  unsuspected  presence.  He  felt 
himself  standing,  with  covered  head 
and  feet  shod,  in  the  holy  temple  of 
a  woman's  heart. 

But  his  involuntary  irreverence 
brought  abundant  grace  with  it.  The 
glimpse  and  the  revelation  wrought 
their  miracles  silently  and  irresist- 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


ibly,  not  by  the  slow  processes  of 
growth  which  Nature  demands  for 
her  enterprises,  but  with  the  sudden 
swiftness  of  the  spirit.  In  an  instant 
changes  had  taken  place  in  Justin's 
soul  which  his  so-called  "  experien 
cing  religion  "  twenty-five  years  back 
had  been  powerless  to  effect.  He  had 
indeed  been  baptized  then,  but  the 
recording  angel  could  have  borne 
witness  that  this  second  baptism  fruc 
tified  the  first,  and  became  the  real 
herald  of  the  new  birth  and  the  new 
creature. 


CHAPTER 
VII 


VII 

TJSTIN  PEABODY  silently 
closed  the  inner  door, 
and  stood  in  the  entry 
with  his  head  bent  and 
his  heart  in  a  whirl 
until  he  should  hear  Nancy  rise  to 
her  feet.  He  must  take  this  Heaven 
sent  chance  of  telling  her  all,  but  how 
do  it  without  alarming  her  ? 

A  moment,  and  her  step  sounded 
in  the  stillness  of  the  empty  church. 
Obeying  the  first  impulse,  he  passed 
through  the  outer  door,  and  stand 
ing  on  the  step,  knocked  once,  twice, 
three  times  ;  then,  opening  it  a  little 


THE  OLD  PEABODY  PEW 


and  speaking  through  the  chink,  he 
called,  "  Is  Miss  Nancy  Wentworth 
here?" 

"  I  'm  here !  "  in  a  moment  came 
Nancy's  answer;  and  then,  with  a 
little  wondering  tremor  in  her  voice, 
as  if  a  hint  of  the  truth  had  already 
dawned  :  "  What 's  wanted  ?  " 

"  You  're  wanted,  Nancy,  wanted 
badly,  by  Justin  Peabody,  corne  back 
from  the  West." 

The  door  opened  wide,  and  Justin 
faced  Nancy  standing  halfway  down 
the  aisle,  her  eyes  brilliant,  her  lips 
parted.  A  week  ago  Justin's  appari 
tion  confronting  her  in  the  empty 
meeting-house  after  nightfall,  even 
had  she  been  prepared  for  it  as  now, 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


by  his  voice,  would  have  terrified  her 
beyond  measure.  Now  it  seemed  al 
most  natural  and  inevitable.  She  had 
spent  these  last  days  in  the  church 
where  both  of  them  had  been  young 
and  happy  together  ;  the  two  letters 
had  brought  him  vividly  to  mind,  and 
her  labor  in  the  old  Peabody  pew  had 
been  one  long  excursion  into  the  past 
in  which  he  was  the  most  prominent 
and  the  best-loved  figure. 

"  I  said  I  'd  come  back  to  you  when 
my  luck  turned,  Nancy/' 

These  were  so  precisely  the  words 
she  expected  him  to  say,  should  she 
ever  see  him  again  face  to  face,  that 
for  an  additional  moment  they  but 
heightened  her  sense  of  unreality. 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"  Well,  the  luck  has  n't  turned, 
after  all,  but  I  couldn't  wait  any 
longer.  Have  you  given  a  thought  to 
me  all  these  years,  Nancy  ?  " 

"  More  than  one,  Justin; "  for  the 
very  look  upon  his  face,  the  tender 
ness  of  his  voice,  the  attitude  of  his 
body,  outran  his  words  and  told  her 
what  he  had  come  home  to  say,  told 
her  that  her  years  of  waiting  were 
over  at  last. 

"  You  ought  to  despise  me  for  com 
ing  back  again  with  only  myself  and 
my  empty  hands  to  offer  you." 

How  easy  it  was  to  speak  his  heart 
out  in  this  dim  and  quiet  place  !  How 
tongue-tied  he  would  have  been,  sit 
ting  on  the  black  haircloth  sofa  in 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


the  Wentworth  parlor  and  gazing  at 
the  open  soapstone  stove ! 

"  Oh,  men  are  such  fools  !  "  cried 
Nancy,  smiles  and  tears  struggling 
together  in  her  speech,  as  she  sat 
down  suddenly  in  her  own  pew  and 
put  her  hands  over  her  face. 

"They  are,"  agreed  Justinhumbly; 
"  but  I  've  never  stopped  loving  you, 
whenever  I  've  had  time  for  thinking 
or  loving.  And  I  was  n't  sure  that 
you  really  cared  anything  about 
me;  and  how  could  I  have  asked 
you  when  I  had  n't  a  dollar  in  the 
world?" 

"  There  are  other  things  to  give 
a  woman  besides  dollars,  Justin." 

"  Are  there  ?  Well,  you  shall  have 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


them  all,  every  one  of  them,  Nancy, 
if  you  can  make  up  your  mind  to 
do  without  the  dollars ;  for  dollars 
seem  to  be  just  what  I  can't  man- 
age." 

Her  hand  was  in  his  by  this  time, 
and  they  were  sitting  side  by  side 
in  the  cushionless,  carpetless  Went- 
worth  pew.  The  door  stood  open; 
the  winter  moon  shone  in  upon  them. 
That  it  was  beginning  to  grow  cold 
in  the  church  passed  unnoticed.  The 
grasp  of  the  woman's  hand  seemed  to 
give  the  man  new  hope  and  courage, 
and  Justin's  warm,  confiding,  plead 
ing  pressure  brought  balm  to  Nancy, 
balm  and  healing  for  the  wounds  her 
pride  had  suffered;  joy,  too,  half- 


THE    WINTER    MOON    SHOXE    IX    UPOX    THEM 


•'•  '•  •  •'•  '-' '  • r<-  •:  ; 

t  .   . :  . 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


conscious  still,  that  her  life  need  not 
be  lived  to  the  end  in  unfruitful 
solitude.  She  had  waited,  "as  some 
gray  lake  lies,  full  and  smooth,  await 
ing  the  star  below  the  twilight/' 
Justin  Peabody  might  have  been  no 
other  woman's  star,  but  he  was 
Nancy's ! 

"  Just  you  sitting  beside  me  here 
makes  me  feel  as  if  I  'd  been  asleep 
or  dead  all  these  years,  and  just  born 
over  again,"  said  Justin.  "  I  've  led  a 
respectable,  hard-working,  honest  life, 
Nancy,"  he  continued,  "  and  I  don't 
owe  any  man  a  cent ;  the  trouble  is 
that  no  man  owes  me  one.  I  've  got 
enough  money  to  pay  two  fares  back 
to  Detroit  on  Monday,  although  I 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


was  terribly  afraid  you  would  n't  let 
me  do  it.  It  '11  need  a  good  deal  of 
thinking  and  planning,  Nancy,  for 
we  shall  be  very  poor." 

Nancy  had  been  storing  up  fidelity 
and  affection  deep,  deep  in  the  hive 
of  her  heart  all  these  years,  and  now 
the  honey  of  her  helpfulness  stood 
ready  to  be  gathered. 

"  Could  I  keep  hens  in  Detroit  ?  " 
she  asked.  "  I  can  always  make  them 
pay." 

"  Hens  —  in  three  rooms,  Nancy  ?  " 

Her  face  fell.  "  And  no  yard  ?  " 

"  No  yard." 

A  moment's  pause,  and  then  the 
smile  came.  "  Oh,  well,  I  've  had 
yards  and  hens  for  thirty-five  years. 


1 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Doing  without  them  will  be  a  change. 
I  can  take  in  sewing." 

"  No,  you  can't,  Nancy.  I  need 
your  backbone  and  wits  and  pluck 
and  ingenuity,  but  if  1  can't  ask  you 
to  sit  with  your  hands  folded  for  the 
rest  of  your  life,  as  I  'd  like  to,  you 
shan't  use  them  for  other  people. 
You  're  marrying  me  to  make  a  man 
of  me,  but  I  'm  not  marrying  you  to 
make  you  a  drudge." 

His  voice  rang  clear  and  true  in 
the  silence,  and  Nancy's  heart  vi 
brated  at  the  sound. 

"  Oh,  Justin,  Justin  !  "  she  whis 
pered.  "  There  's  something  wrong 
somewhere,  but  we  '11  find  it  out  to 
gether,  you  and  I,  and  make  it  right. 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


You  're  not  like  a  failure.  You  don't 
even  look  poor,  Justin ;  there  is  n't 
a  man  in  Edgewood  to  compare  with 
you,  or  I  should  be  washing  his 
dishes  and  darning  his  stockings  this 
minute.  And  I  am  not  a  pauper ! 
There'll  be  the  rent  of  my  little 
house  and  a  carload  of  my  furniture, 
so  you  can  put  the  three-room  idea 
out  of  your  mind,  and  your  firm  will 
offer  you  a  larger  salary  when  you  tell 
them  you  have  a  wife  to  take  care  of. 
Oh,  I  see  it  all,  and  it  is  as  easy  and 
bright  and  happy  as  can  be !  " 

Justin  put  his  arm  around  her  and 
drew  her  close,  with  such  a  throb 
of  gratitude  for  her  belief  and  trust 
that  it  moved  him  almost  to  tears. 


Nj 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


There  was  a  long  pause ;  then  he 
said :  — 

"  Now  I  shall  call  for  you  to-mor 
row  morning  after  the  last  bell  has 
stopped  ringing,  and  we  will  walk  up 
the  aisle  together  and  sit  in  the  old 
Peabody  pew.  We  shall  be  a  nine- 
days'  wonder  anyway,  but  this  will 
be  equal  to  an  announcement,  espe 
cially  if  you  take  my  arm.  W£  don't 
either  of  us  like  to  be  stared  at,  but 
this  will  show  without  a  word  what  we 
think  of  each  other  and  what  we  've 
promised  to  be  to  each  other,  and  it 's 
the  only  thing  that  will  make  me 
feel  sure  of  you  and  settled  in  my 
mind  after  all  these  mistaken  years. 
Have  you  got  the  courage,  Nancy  ?  " 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"  I  should  n't  wonder !  I  guess  if 
I  've  had  courage  enough  to  wait 
for  you,  I  've  got  courage  enough 
to  walk  up  the  aisle  with  you  and 
marry  you  besides  !  "  said  Nancy. — 
"  Now  it  is  too  late  for  us  to  stay 
here  any  longer,  and  you  must  see 
me  only  as  far  as  my  gate,  for  per 
haps  you  have  n't  forgotten  yet  how 
interested  the  Brewsters  are  in  their 
neighbors." 

They  stood  at  the  little  Went- 
worth  gate  for  a  moment,  hand  close 
clasped  in  hand.  The  night  was 
clear,  the  air  was  cold  and  sparkling, 
but  with  nothing  of  bitterness  in  it, 
the  sky  was  steely  blue,  and  the  even 
ing  star  glowed  and  burned  like  a 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


tiny  sun.  Nancy  remembered  the 
shepherd's  song  she  had  taught  the 
Sunday-school  children,  and  repeated 
softly :  — 

"  For  I  my  sheep  was  watching 

Beneath  the  silent  skies, 
When  sudden,  far  to  eastward, 

I  saw  a  star  arise ; 
Then  all  the  peaceful  heavens 

With  sweetest  music  rang, 
And  glory,  glory,  glory ! 

The  happy  angels  sang. 

"  So  I  this  night  am  joyful, 

Though  I  can  scarce  tell  why, 
It  seeraeth  me  that  glory 

Hath  met  us  very  nigh ; 
And  we,  though  poor  and  humble, 

Have  part  in  heavenly  plan, 
For,  born  to-night,  the  Prince  of  Peace 

Shall  rule  the  heart  of  man." 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Justin's  heart  melted  within  him 
like  wax  to  the  woman's  vision  and 
the  woman's  touch. 

"  Oh,  Nancy,  Nancy  !  "  he  whis 
pered.  "  If  I  had  brought  my  bad 
luck  to  you  long,  long  ago,  would  you 
have  taken  me  then,  and  have  I  lost 
years  of  such  happiness  as  this  ?  " 

"  There  are  some  things  it  is  not 
best  for  a  man  to  be  certain  about," 
said  Nancy,  with  a  wise  smile  and  a 
last  good-night. 


VIII 


"  Ring  out,  sweet  bells, 
O'er  woods  and  dells 

Your  lovely  strains  repeat, 
While  happy  throngs 
With  joyous  songs 

Each  accent  gladly  greet." 

HRISTMAS  morning  in 
the  old  Tory  Hill  Meet 
ing-House  was  felt  by 
all  of  the  persons  who 
were  present  in  that 
particular  year  to  be  a  most  exciting 
and  memorable  occasion. 

The  old  sexton  quite  outdid  him 
self,  for  although  he  had  rung  the 
bell  for  more  than  thirty  years,  he 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


had  never  felt  greater  pride  or  joy  in 
his  task.  Was  not  his  son  John  home 
for  Christmas,  and  John's  wife,  and 
a  grandchild  newly  named  Nathaniel 
for  himself?  Were  there  not  spare- 
ribs  and  turkeys  and  cranberries  and 
mince  pies  on  the  pantry  shelves, 
and  barrels  of  rosy  Baldwins  in  the 
cellar  and  bottles  of  mother's  root 
beer  just  waiting  to  give  a  holiday 
pop?  The  bell  itself  forgot  its  age 
and  the  suspicion  of  a  crack  that 
dulled  its  voice  on  a  damp  day,  and, 
inspired  by  the  bright,  frosty  air, 
the  sexton's  inspiring  pull,  and  the 
Christmas  spirit,  gave  out  nothing 
but  joyous  tones. 

Ding-dong  !    Ding-dong !     It  fired 


B 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


the  ambitions  of  star  scholars  about 
to  recite  hymns  and  sing  solos.  It 
thrilled  little  girls  expecting  dolls  be 
fore  night.  It  excited  beyond  bearing 
dozens  of  little  boys  being  buttoned 
into  refractory  overcoats.  Ding-dong  ! 
Ding-dong!  Mothers'  fingers  trem 
bled  when  they  heard  it,  and  mothers' 
voices  cried  :  "  If  that  is  the  second 
bell,  the  children  will  never  be  ready 
in  time  !  Where  are  the  overshoes  ? 
Where  are  the  mittens  ?  Hurry, 
Jack!  Hurry,  Jennie!"  Ding-dong! 
Ding-dong  !  "  Where  's  Sally's  muff? 
Where 's  father's  fur  cap  ?  Is  the 
sleigh  at  the  door  ?  Are  the  hot 
soapstones  in  ?  Have  all  of  you  your 
money  for  the  contribution  box?" 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Ding-dong!  Ding-dong!  It  was  a 
blithe  bell,  a  sweet,  true  bell,  a  holy 
bell,  and  to  Justin  pacing  his  tavern 
room,  as  to  Nancy  trembling  in  her 
maiden  chamber,  it  rang  a  Christmas 
message :  — 

Awake,  glad  heart !   Arise  and  sing; 
It  is  the  birthday  of  thy  King ! 

The  congregation  filled  every  seat 
in  the  old  meeting-house. 

As  Maria  Sharp  had  prophesied, 
there  was  one  ill-natured  spinster 
from  a  rival  village  who  declared  that 
the  church  floor  looked  like  Joseph's 
coat  laid  out  smooth ;  but  in  the  gen 
eral  chorus  of  admiration,  approval, 
and  good-will,  this  envious  speech, 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


though    repeated    from    mouth    to 
mouth,  left  no  sting. 

Another  item  of  interest  long 
recalled  was  the  fact  that  on  that 
august  and  unapproachable  day  the 
pulpit  yases  stood  erect  and  empty, 
though  Nancy  Wentworth  had  filled 
them  every  Sunday  since  any  one 
could  remember.  This  instance, 
though  felt  at  the  time  to  be  of 
mysterious  significance  if  the  cause 
were  ever  revealed,  paled  into  no 
thingness  when,  after  the  ringing 
of  the  last  bell,  Nancy  Wentworth 
walked  up  the  aisle  on  Justin  Pea- 
body's  arm,  and  they  took  their 
seats  side  by  side  in  the  old  family 
pew. 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


("And  consid'able  close,  too, 
though  there  was  plenty  o'  room !  ") 

("  And  no  one  that  I  ever  heard 
of  so  much  as  suspicioned  that  they 
had  ever  kept  company  !  ") 

("  And  do  you  s'pose  she  knew 
Justin  was  expected  back  when  she 
scrubbed  his  pew  a-Friday  ?  ") 

("  And  this  explains  the  empty 
pulpit  vases ! ") 

("  And  I  always  said  that  Nancy 
would  make  a  real  handsome  couple 
if  she  ever  got  anybody  to  couple 
with!") 

During  the  unexpected  and  solemn 
procession  of  the  two  up  the  aisle  the 
soprano  of  the  village  choir  stopped 
short  in  the  middle  of  the  Doxology, 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


and  the  three  other  voices  carried  it 
to  the  end  without  any  treble.  Also, 
among  those  present  there  were  some 
who  could  not  remember  afterward 
the  precise  petitions  wafted  upward 
in  the  opening  prayer. 

And  could  it  be  explained  other 
wise  than  by  cheerfully  acknowledg 
ing  the  bounty  of  an  overruling  Provi 
dence  that  Nancy  Wentworth  should 
have  had  a  new  winter  dress  for  the 
first  time  in  five  years  —  a  winter 
dress  of  dark  brown  cloth  to  match 
her  beaver  muff  and  victorine  ?  The 
existence  of  this  toilette  had  been 
known  and  discussed  in  Edgewood 
for  a  month  past,  and  it  was  thought 
to  be  nothing  more  thai?  a  proper 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


token  of  respect  from  a  member  of 
the  carpet  committee  to  the  general 
magnificence  of  the  church  on  the 
occasion  of  its  reopening  after  re 
pairs.  Indeed,  you  could  have  iden 
tified  every  member  of  the  Dorcas 
Society  that  Sunday  morning  by  the 
freshness  of  her  apparel.  The  brown 
dress,  then,  was  generally  expected ; 
but  why  the  white  cashmere  waist 
with  collar  and  cuffs  of  point  lace, 
devised  only  and  suitable  only  for 
the  minister's  wedding,  where  it 
first  saw  the  light  ? 

"  The  white  waist  can  only  be  ex 
plained  as  showing  distinct  hope !  " 
whispered  the  minister's  wife  during 
the  reading  of  the  church  notices. 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


"  To  me  it  shows  more  than  hope  ; 
I  am  very  sure  that  Nancy  would 
never  take  any  wear  out  of  that  lace 
for  hope ;  it  means  certainty  !  "  an 
swered  Maria,  who  was  always  strong 
in  the  prophetic  line. 

By  sermon  time  Justin's  identity 
had  dawned  upon  most  of  the  con 
gregation.  A  stranger  to  all  but  one 
or  two  at  first,  his  presence  in  the 
Peabody  pew  brought  his  face  and 
figure  back,  little  by  little,  to  the 
minds  of  the  old  parishioners. 

When  the  contribution  plate  was 
passed,  the  sexton  always  began  at  the 
right-wing  pews,  as  all  the  sextons 
before  him  had  done  for  a  hundred 
years.  Every  eye  in  the  church  was 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


already  turned  upon  Justin  and 
Nancy,  and  it  was  with  almost  a  gasp 
that  those  in  the  vicinity  saw  a  ten 
dollar  bill  fall  in  the  plate.  The  sex 
ton  reeled,  or,  if  that  is  too  intem 
perate  a  word  for  a  pillar  of  the 
church,  the  good  man  tottered,  but 
caught  hold  of  the  pew  rail  with  one 
hand,  and,  putting  the  thumb  of  his 
other  over  the  bill,  proceeded  quickly 
to  the  next  pew,  lest  the  stranger 
should  think  better  of  his  gift,  or 
demand  change,  as  had  occasionally 
been  done  in  the  olden  time. 

Nancy  never  fluttered  an  eyelash, 
but  sat  quietly  by  Justin's  side  with 
her  bosom  rising  and  falling  under 
the  beaver  fur  and  her  cold  hands 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


clasped  tight  in  the  little  brown  muff. 
Far  from  grudging  this  appreciable 
part  of  their  slender  resources,  she 
thrilled  with  pride  to  see  Justin's 
offering  fall  in  the  plate. 

Justin  was  too  absorbed  in  his  own 
thoughts  to  notice  anything,  but  his 
munificent  contribution  had  a  most 
unexpected  effect  upon  his  reputa 
tion,  after  all ;  for  on  that  day,  and 
on  many  another  later  one,  when  his 
sudden  marriage  and  departure  with 
Nancy  Wentworth  were  under  dis 
cussion,  the  neighbors  said  to  one 
another :  — 

"  Justin  must  be  making  money 
fast  out  West !  He  put  ten  dollars  in 
the  contribution  plate  a-Sunday,  and 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


paid  the  minister  ten  more  next  day 
for  marryin'  him  to  Nancy ;  so  the 
Peabody  luck  has  turned  at  last ! " 
which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  had. 

"  And  all  the  time,"  said  the  chair 
man  of  the  carpet  committee  to  the 
treasurer  of  the  Dorcas  Society  — 
"  all  the  time,  little  as  she  realized 
it,  Nancy  was  laying  the  carpet  in 
her  own  pew.  Now  she  's  married 
to  Justin,  she  '11  be  the  makin'  of 
him,  or  I  miss  my  guess.  You  can't 
do  a  thing  with  men  folks  without 
they  're  right  alongside  where  you 
can  keep  your  eye  and  hand  on  'em. 
Justin  's  handsome  and  good  and 
stiddy ;  all  he  needs  is  some  nice 
woman  to  put  starch  into  him.  The 


THE    OLD    PEABODY    PEW 


Edgewood  Peabodys  never  had  a 
mite  o'  stiffenin'  in  'em,  —  limp  as 
dishrags,  every  blessed  one !  Nancy 
Wentworth  fairly  rustles  with  starch. 
Justin  had  n't  been  engaged  to  her 
but  a  few  hours  when  they  walked 
up  the  aisle  together,  but  did  you 
notice  the  way  he  carried  his  head  ? 
I  declare  I  thought  't  would  fall  off 
behind  !  I  should  n't  wonder  a  mite 
but  they  prospered  and  come  back 
every  summer  to  set  in  the  old 
Peabody  Pew." 


Cbc  tfifccrsitir  press 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    •    S    •    A 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


2     JAN 


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MAY  I 


Nffl/5    '64- 


/.UTO.  DISC. 

DEC  12  1988 

CIRCULATION 


v,,*.    J»» 

NOV11 

LD  21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 


ItfHr 


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MKELEY  LIBRARIES 


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